Jean Daly is a Research Fellow in the Sociology Department at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Ian McDonald is a practising cardiologist and Director of the Cardiac Investigation Unit, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne.

• List of illustrations – List of contributors – Acknowledgements -- Introduction: the problem as we saw it/Jeanne Daly and Ian McDonald -- Part I. Issues of policy. 1. The perspective of the policy maker on health care research and evaluation/David Hailey. 2. Cost-utility analyses in health care: present status and future issues/Jeff Richardson -- Part II. The randomised controlled trial. 3. Randomised controlled trials in health care research/David J. Newell. 4. The impact of clinical research on clinical practice/Jack Hirsh. 5. The clinician and the randomised controlled trial/Michael Jelinek -- Part III. Non-experimental quantitative study designs. 6. Broadening the scope of evaluation: why and how/Christel A. Woodward. 7. Advantages and limitations of the survey approach: understanding older people/John B. McKinlay. 8. Comparing alternative methodologies of social research: an overview/Jake M. Najman, John Morrison, Gail M. Williams and Margaret J. Andersen -- Part IV. Qualitative research methods.; 9. 'Don't mind him -- he's from Barcelona': qualitative methods in health studies/Robert Dingwall. 10. Applying the qualitative method to clinical care/David Silverman. 11. Why don't you ask them?: a qualitative research framework for investigating the diagnosis of cardiac normality/Jeanne Daly, Ian McDonald and Evan Willis -- Part V. Conclusion. 12. Research methods in health care -- a summing up/Ian McDonald and Jeanne Daly – Name index – Subject index.