Evaluating Clinical Research

What is the purpose of this book?.- Why is benefit-to-harm balance essential to treatment decisions?.- What are the strengths of randomized controlled clinical trials?.- What are the weaknesses of randomized controlled clinical trials?.- Do meta-analyses provide the ultimate truth?.- What are the strengths of observational studies?.- What are the weaknesses of observational studies?.- Were the scientific questions stated in advance?.- Were the treatment groups comparable initially?.- Why is blinding/masking so important?.- How is symptomatic improvement measured?.- Is it really possible to assess quality of life?.- What is the value of biologic markers in drug evaluation?.- How are adverse drug reactions measured?.- How representative are study subjects in clinical trials?.- What happened to the study subjects who disappeared from the analysis?.- How reliable are active-control trials?.- How informative are composite outcomes?.- Do changes in biologic markers predict clinical benefit?.- How trustworthy are the authors?.- Does publication in a reputable scientific journal guarantee quality?.- Is it necessary to be a biostatistician to interpret scientific data?.- Are all drugs of a class interchangeable?.- How much confidence can be placed on economic analysis?.- How should I handle the massive flow of information?.- How well is research translated into clinical care?.