The public is bombarded daily with reports about risk factors, many conflicting with each other, others accepted as "scientific truth" for awhile, then scientifically disproved, yet others questionable that later prove to be true. Physicians are faced with trying to make sense of those conflicting or questionable results in the scientific literature in order to guide their patients to the best possible decisions. The situation is not much easier for scientists who may waste years of their productive life, and considerable resources, basing their research efforts on what prove to be misleading earlier research findings. What this book does is to present, in non "academese" and with many examples from the general media and scientific journals, a guide to a critical reading of research reports, which, in turn, serves as a guide to researchers as to which approaches are likely to be regarded with raised eyebrows, and what they need to do to generate results that will be taken seriously. This stimulating and helpful book was written for informed consumers and physicians as well as for scientists evaluating the risk research literature or contemplating projects on risk research.

The public is bombarded daily with reports about risk factors, many conflicting with each other, others accepted as "scientific truth" for awhile, then scientifically disproved, yet others questionable that later prove to be true. Physicians are faced with trying to make sense of those conflicting or questionable results in the scientific literature in order to guide their patients to the best possible decisions. The situation is not much easier for scientists who may waste years of their productive life, and considerable resources, basing their research efforts on what prove to be misleading earlier research findings. What this book does is to present, in non "academese" and with many examples from the general media and scientific journals, a guide to a critical reading of research reports, which, in turn, serves as a guide to researchers as to which approaches are likely to be regarded with raised eyebrows, and what they need to do to generate results that will be taken seriously. This stimulating and helpful book was written for informed consumers and physicians as well as for scientists evaluating the risk research literature or contemplating projects on risk research.

Although psychotherapy research shares many of the same methodological issues that pharmacology trials do, psychotherapy research poses unique challenges, including the difficulty (if not near impossibility) of keeping participants blind to treatment assignment, the need for a replicable manual and therapist training procedure, the importance of outside observation of therapy quality ratings, and the problems researchers face in measuring the active ingredients of psychotherapy.High Quality Psychotherapy Research is for all psychotherapy investigators who wish to learn state-of-the-art psychotherapy research methods. Organized developmentally, the book explains the conceptualization of the trial, discusses the pilot study and the large scale study, and concludes with instructions for designing a multi-site trial. Topics specific to psychotherapy research are examined in detail, including innovations in data analysis, how to conduct multi-site psychotherapy trials, mediation of treatment outcomes, the transportability of evidence-based behavioral interventions in community practice, training community providers to be study therapists, and recruiting hard-to-reach populations. High Quality Psychotherapy Research is an informative, practical book appropriate for a broad range of readers, from junior investigators developing their first study idea to seasoned investigators who wish to take their research to a larger-scale level.

A growing body of medical research suggests that many medical tests used for diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring response to treatment are unnecessary or inappropriate, yield inaccurate or misleading results, and add to the incidence of iatrogenic disease. Many such tests go into common clinical use without convincing documentation of their value because current methods for evaluating medical tests produce inconsistent results. Evaluating Medical Tests presents a systematic, objective methodology by which to determine the effectiveness of medical tests. Kraemer clearly and concisely shows how to define statistical terms and approaches consistently from study to study, how to stipulate statistical assumptions underlying various approaches, how to check for empirical validity, and how to judge the robustness of statistical outcomes, resulting in models that integrate many different approaches and extend the strengths of each. Statisticians, evaluators, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and advanced students concerned with the evaluation of medical tests used to make clinical decisions for patient care and for research will find this essential, thought-provoking reading. "This volume is a pleasure to read. It succinctly combines carefully reasoned conceptualization with the mathematical methods for addressing test evaluation problems. With clinically relevant, illustrative examples, it draws on the author's extensive experience and research in biomedical statistics. It should be required reading for medical students and practitioners. It is invaluable to researchers and statisticians, and it provides a logical, scientific basis for efforts at medical cost containment. It is a classic! --from the Foreword by A. John Rush, M.D. "This fascinating book integrates a wide range of statistical and methodological concepts, reflects a thorough introduction to the issues confronted by evaluators of [medical] tests, and challenges motivated readers to adopt these procedures in their own research. This is an exciting book, with obvious strong policy implications concerning the way that [medical] tests are evaluated and the need for standards in this regard. . . . Evaluating Medical Tests should be of interest to all professionals who depend on tests as an adjunct in the decision-making process." --Paul R. Yarnold Northwestern University Medical School "Dr. Kraemer has undertaken a most massive and laudable task in writing Evaluating Medical Tests. . . . Dr. Kraemer's book stands as a flagship for those concerned to understand the reasons behind our escalating health care costs and the implications this holds for every American. . . . This leads us to one of the innovative features of Dr. Kraemer's book: 'This is not merely a statistical issue, or merely a medical issue, it is a national policy issue of the greatest importance.'. . . She does not assume that her readers are either statisticians or physicians. As such, she skillfully guides one through the terrain of medical and statistical jargon and points our where the assumptions of the statistics are either not stipulated or incongruent with the medical test and data being evaluated, thus rendering results and interpretations suspect. Another plus of Dr. Kraemer's writing is her willingness to use '. . . the first person singular to differentiate . . . comments from presentations of what I would consider provable or documentable facts. . . ' In so doing, she raised issues and calls medical professionals, policymakers, and patients into dialogue to consider the impact of the use of these various techniques in diagnosis. . . . Evaluating Medical Tests is of specific relevance to rehabilitation counselors who proceed with their clients through the maze of diagnostic and prognostic tests. . . . It is especially important for rehabilitation counselors who act as expert witnesses to have a working knowledge of this material to enhance their discussions with health care personnel." --Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling

The public is bombarded daily with reports about risk factors, many conflicting with each other, others accepted as "scientific truth" for awhile, then scientifically disproved, yet others questionable that later prove to be true. Physicians are faced with trying to make sense of those conflicting or questionable results in the scientific literature in order to guide their patients to the best possible decisions. The situation is not much easier for scientists who may waste years of their productive life, and considerable resources, basing their research efforts on what prove to be misleading earlier research findings. What this book does is to present, in non "academese" and with many examples from the general media and scientific journals, a guide to a critical reading of research reports, which, in turn, serves as a guide to researchers as to which approaches are likely to be regarded with raised eyebrows, and what they need to do to generate results that will be taken seriously. This stimulating and helpful book was written for informed consumers and physicians as well as for scientists evaluating the risk research literature or contemplating projects on risk research.

The public is bombarded daily with reports about risk factors, many conflicting with each other, others accepted as "scientific truth" for awhile, then scientifically disproved, yet others questionable that later prove to be true. Physicians are faced with trying to make sense of those conflicting or questionable results in the scientific literature in order to guide their patients to the best possible decisions. The situation is not much easier for scientists who may waste years of their productive life, and considerable resources, basing their research efforts on what prove to be misleading earlier research findings. What this book does is to present, in non "academese" and with many examples from the general media and scientific journals, a guide to a critical reading of research reports, which, in turn, serves as a guide to researchers as to which approaches are likely to be regarded with raised eyebrows, and what they need to do to generate results that will be taken seriously. This stimulating and helpful book was written for informed consumers and physicians as well as for scientists evaluating the risk research literature or contemplating projects on risk research.

Although psychotherapy research shares many of the same methodological issues that pharmacology trials do, psychotherapy research poses unique challenges, including the difficulty (if not near impossibility) of keeping participants blind to treatment assignment, the need for a replicable manual and therapist training procedure, the importance of outside observation of therapy quality ratings, and the problems researchers face in measuring the active ingredients of psychotherapy.High Quality Psychotherapy Research is for all psychotherapy investigators who wish to learn state-of-the-art psychotherapy research methods. Organized developmentally, the book explains the conceptualization of the trial, discusses the pilot study and the large scale study, and concludes with instructions for designing a multi-site trial. Topics specific to psychotherapy research are examined in detail, including innovations in data analysis, how to conduct multi-site psychotherapy trials, mediation of treatment outcomes, the transportability of evidence-based behavioral interventions in community practice, training community providers to be study therapists, and recruiting hard-to-reach populations. High Quality Psychotherapy Research is an informative, practical book appropriate for a broad range of readers, from junior investigators developing their first study idea to seasoned investigators who wish to take their research to a larger-scale level.

A growing body of medical research suggests that many medical tests used for diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring response to treatment are unnecessary or inappropriate, yield inaccurate or misleading results, and add to the incidence of iatrogenic disease. Many such tests go into common clinical use without convincing documentation of their value because current methods for evaluating medical tests produce inconsistent results. Evaluating Medical Tests presents a systematic, objective methodology by which to determine the effectiveness of medical tests. Kraemer clearly and concisely shows how to define statistical terms and approaches consistently from study to study, how to stipulate statistical assumptions underlying various approaches, how to check for empirical validity, and how to judge the robustness of statistical outcomes, resulting in models that integrate many different approaches and extend the strengths of each. Statisticians, evaluators, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and advanced students concerned with the evaluation of medical tests used to make clinical decisions for patient care and for research will find this essential, thought-provoking reading. "This volume is a pleasure to read. It succinctly combines carefully reasoned conceptualization with the mathematical methods for addressing test evaluation problems. With clinically relevant, illustrative examples, it draws on the author's extensive experience and research in biomedical statistics. It should be required reading for medical students and practitioners. It is invaluable to researchers and statisticians, and it provides a logical, scientific basis for efforts at medical cost containment. It is a classic! --from the Foreword by A. John Rush, M.D. "This fascinating book integrates a wide range of statistical and methodological concepts, reflects a thorough introduction to the issues confronted by evaluators of [medical] tests, and challenges motivated readers to adopt these procedures in their own research. This is an exciting book, with obvious strong policy implications concerning the way that [medical] tests are evaluated and the need for standards in this regard. . . . Evaluating Medical Tests should be of interest to all professionals who depend on tests as an adjunct in the decision-making process." --Paul R. Yarnold Northwestern University Medical School "Dr. Kraemer has undertaken a most massive and laudable task in writing Evaluating Medical Tests. . . . Dr. Kraemer's book stands as a flagship for those concerned to understand the reasons behind our escalating health care costs and the implications this holds for every American. . . . This leads us to one of the innovative features of Dr. Kraemer's book: 'This is not merely a statistical issue, or merely a medical issue, it is a national policy issue of the greatest importance.'. . . She does not assume that her readers are either statisticians or physicians. As such, she skillfully guides one through the terrain of medical and statistical jargon and points our where the assumptions of the statistics are either not stipulated or incongruent with the medical test and data being evaluated, thus rendering results and interpretations suspect. Another plus of Dr. Kraemer's writing is her willingness to use '. . . the first person singular to differentiate . . . comments from presentations of what I would consider provable or documentable facts. . . ' In so doing, she raised issues and calls medical professionals, policymakers, and patients into dialogue to consider the impact of the use of these various techniques in diagnosis. . . . Evaluating Medical Tests is of specific relevance to rehabilitation counselors who proceed with their clients through the maze of diagnostic and prognostic tests. . . . It is especially important for rehabilitation counselors who act as expert witnesses to have a working knowledge of this material to enhance their discussions with health care personnel." --Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling