Fundamentals of Evidence-Based Health Care and Translational Science

ABOUT THIS BOOK

• Explains in depth how best to conduct comparative effectiveness research as a basis for making evidence-based decisions in health care
• Covers compelling current issues and a variety of analytical tools
• Designed as a ready pocketbook and instant reference for researchers, health care providers, students, and instructors in the field
• User-friendly, with a readily accessible structure, format, and style

Comparative effectiveness research – the conduct and synthesis of systematic research in order to compare the benefits and harms of alternative treatment options – is of critical importance in enabling informed health care decisions to be made. This user-friendly, practical handbook examines in depth how best to perform such comparative effectiveness research. A wide range of topics and methods are discussed, including research synthesis, sampling analysis, assessment of evidence design, systematic evaluation of statistical analysis, and meta-analysis. The discussion extends well beyond the fundamentals by encompassing “complex” systematic reviews, “cumulative” meta-analyses, and logic-based versus utility-based decision making. Health care providers, researchers, instructors, and students will all find this to be an invaluable reference on the compelling current issues and important analytical tools in comparative effectiveness research.

Content Level » Professional/practitioner
Keywords » level of evidence - meta-analysis - research synthesis - systematic review
Related subjects » Medicine

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Fundamental Implications for Clinical Practice: Translational Effectiveness in the Context of Translational Science.- Comparative Effectiveness Analysis and Evidence-Based Decisions.- The Best Available Evidence.- Sampling and Assessment of the Evidence.- Systematic Evaluation of Statistical Analysis: Data Analysis in Research Synthesis.- Optimizing Clinical Practice-Based Patient-Centered Outcomes Research: Getting and Understanding Data.- Obtaining Data.- Describing and Analyzing Data.- Translational Effectiveness Analysis.- Optimizing Clinical Outcomes by Individualizing Observations.- Evaluation in Patient-Centered Outcomes Research.- Translational Effectiveness in Practice-Based Patient-Centered Outcomes Research.

AUTHORS & EDITORS

Professor Francesco Chiappelli, Ph.D. has contributed extensively to the development of the field of evidence-based and comparative effectiveness decision-making in health care over the past several years through his teaching, research publications, and authorship of several book chapters and books. Professor Chiappelli is the founder and director of the International Forum on evidence-based decisions and comparative effectiveness research (IF-EBD-CER), and is the honorary president of the Brazilian Association for Evidence-based dentistry. He is a American Dental Association Champion of evidence-based dentistry, and he is listed as a Fulbright Specialists for his expertise in evidence-based and comparative effectiveness analysis in health care.