Book Description

A wide variety of biomedical photonic technologies have been developed recently for clinical monitoring of early disease states; molecular diagnostics and imaging of physiological parameters; molecular and genetic biomarkers; and detection of the presence of pathological organisms or biochemical species of clinical importance. However, available information on this rapidly growing field is fragmented among a variety of journals and specialized books.Now researchers and medical practitioners have an authoritative and comprehensive source for the latest research and applications in biomedical photonics. Over 150 leading scientists, engineers, and physicians discuss state-of-the-art instrumentation, methods, and protocols in the Biomedical Photonics Handbook. Editor-in-Chief Tuan Vo-Dinh and an advisory board of distinguished scientists and medical experts ensure that each of the 65 chapters represents the latest and most accurate information currently available. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Intelligent, Useful Handbook
Biomedical applications of light are expanding dynamically. This handbook does a good job of organizing a mass of information on dozens of cutting-edge technologies. The articles by leading experts are aimed at professionals but do not, in most cases, require specialized knowledge to understand. The clear graphics appropriately support the text, while the chapter bibliographies are extensive.
So this handbook can be recommended to any scientist, medical doctor, engineer, or graduate student in this or related fields.
However, this book suffers from certain flaws that it shares with many other English-language books in this field. Scientists in Russia and other East European countries are very competitive in certain areas of biomedical photonics. They lead the world in the centrally important field of low-intensity laser therapy (LILT). Yet the book's discussion of biophotonics and its almost totally monoglot bibliographies do not come close to incorporating their findings.
Even the sole article on LILT states that it will not discuss whole body responses to this therapy. Why not? They are very relevant in a handbook of this sort.
What's more, this article omits any mention of Biophotonic Therapy (Photoluminescence, Quantum Hemotherapy), the treatment of the blood with a low-intensity laser via an intravenous waveguide or, in extracorporeal mode, with UV and visible light. The reader would never learn from this handbook that thousands of practitioners throughout the world use Biophotonic Therapy every day for a wide range of indications. The mechanisms of BT are well characterized, and more than 400 scientific articles and a dozen books are devoted to BT's clinical track record.
These are unfortunate omissions in an otherwise admirable handbook. ... Read more

Book Description

The field of cost-effectiveness analysis has lacked an entry-level textbook until now. Designing and Conducting Cost-Effectiveness Analyses in Medicine and Health Care is a hands-on guide for conducting economic analyses that closely follows the recommendations of the Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine. Step by step, Dr. Muennig outlines the theory and practice of cost-effectiveness and shows how to develop an original research question, retrieve data, design a decision analysis tree, calculate quality-adjusted life years, and test for error in analysis. The book provides clear and detailed instruction and includes a review of the epidemiological and biostatistical skills students need to conduct cost-effectiveness analyses. While the book is designed for students, it includes advanced topics for policymakers, community health experts, and preventive medicine residents who are interested in the field. The book uses a worked example to walk the reader through the process of designing and conducting an analysis and provides links to all of the major Internet-accessible sources of government data. This book will be a welcome addition to the library of students and seasoned researchers alike. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

good guided tour of cost-effectiveness analyses
This book was really well-written in that everything was laid out clearly and consistently. I could basically choose my level of involvement, since the author explicitly delineates what each chapter and each exercise is for. The book was especially helpful in helping me choose which statistical methods of analysis would best fit the data set and research question I was working on; no other books I looked up did this in a readable way. Also, what really impressed me is the fact that the book made all the exercises not only seem, but actually feel, easy (or at least logical), and it wasn't until the end that I realized that I had built a decent foundation in cost-effectiveness analysis. The lessons were cumulative, so that the process of doing the problem sets actually felt fulfilling. ... Read more

Book Description

Qualitative Methods in Public Health is a comprehensive resource that presents practical strategies and methods for using qualitative research and includes the basic logic and rationale for making qualitative research decisions. This important book outlines the complexities, advantages, and limitations of qualitative methods and offers information and step-by-step procedures for every phase of research¾from theory to study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, and dissemination. Written for faculty, students, and practitioners in public health research, promotion, and education Qualitative Methods in Public Health will help those with prior research experience expand their repertoire to include qualitative methods.  The book also contains up-to-date illustrations from a  wealth of topics such as reproductive choice, sexual risk and protection, gender relations, and other areas critical to understanding population, health, and disease. Qualitative Methods in Public Health includes 

• Examples of mixed qualitative-quantitative research design
• Guidelines for discussions, sample budgets, and caveats for planning and implementing focus groups
• Sample agenda for training interviewers 
• A summary of needed critical appraisal skills
• Tips on where to publish the results
• Sample brochure to share qualitative study findings with participating communities
• A comprehensive index

... Read more

Book Description

Here is an ideal introduction to research methods for clinicians, fellows, residents, and medical students.Written in a clear, easy-to-understand style, it outlines the steps that should be followed in order to organize and implement a typical investigation.Emphasizing the anticipation of future difficulties and the benefits of early planning, the authors discuss the types of questions that should be asked, how to design a study, and methods of data acquisition and analysis.Many examples are presented to illustrate the textual material, and extensive bibliography sections at the end of each chapter direct readers to published articles and texts that will provide further information. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The PA Guide to Research and Medical Literature
I reviewed "Physician Assistant's Guide to Research and Medical Literature", Edited by J. Dennis Blessing, PhD, PA-C, with a forward by Donald M Pederson, PhD, PA. Many well known and respected PA educators and clinicians authored chapters including James Cawley, Roderick Hooker, Robert Jarski, Eugene Jones, Marvis Lary, Anthony Miller, and Richard Rahr. It will be valuable to the new PA researcher and student and as an adjunct for more advanced investigators. I was so impressed with the title and authors of this text, that I ordered it before it became available for distribution. I received it in January of this year and found it to be far better than I had hoped. I was in the process of finishing a draft of a literature review for presentation to the medical staff when it arrived. With this text as my guide, I re-reviewed my literature citations for validity and found a number of items that were not worthy of inclusion in my final paper. I have a number of college level texts on medical research in my library; this is the first one I will go to from now on. A one sentence summary of the content of the book is: "Research for the Physician Assistant: how to do it, how to evaluate it" With but minimal changes, this could be easily as useful to Nurse Practitioner's, Pharmacist's and medical students as it is for physician assistants. The Blessing text is IMHO "THE" guide to research for clinically practicing physician assistants who may only write a few research projects in their career and of course, PA students. I have taken two Research and Statistics classes in my formal studies over the years. If this text had been available to me, those courses would have been a pleasure instead of the grinding boredom they were to me. The guide is arranged into the major sections of a scientific paper, master's thesis, or doctoral dissertation. Each chapter reviews the model of research involved and includes worksheets to guide the PA in outlining a research project. This guide discusses how research applies to PAs in all aspects of the profession. This text contains an easy to follow almost paint by numbers approach to conducting and interpreting research proposals and papers that I find very useful in my review of the literature in determining the value of the study I am reviewing. It includes the principles and pitfalls of healthcare research with vignettes from the PA world. It contains, lists of resources, a glossary, and advice on efficiently selecting articles. It is a basic, easy to use introductory guide to research for practicing physician assistants and students. This guide provides practical advice on the value of research in clinical practice, how to do research while in a practice, and how to evaluate it. It is a resource text book and reference for use in analyzing practice issues and conducting formal and informal investigations It discusses how and where to get published There are worksheets to ensure that no crucial research steps are forgotten and Provides guidelines on how to critically read literature, how to select the most important articles / books to read, and how to apply the guidelines to clinical practice. There are good examples of real-life research projects and results with each type of project discussed, connecting theory to actual clinical situation.

Blaine P. Carmichael, MPAS, PA-C ... Read more

Book Description

This book explains statistical concepts in a highly readable and accessible way - assuming no formal knowledge of statistics. It uses practical examples from a variety of disciplines, and concentrates on the clear explanation of a wide range of statistical techniques. The book is also a comprehensive introduction and guide to SPSS (up to Version 10), and comes with a useful CD-ROM with sample data sets.Organized so that it offers a clear guide to choosing the appropriate procedure the first edition of this book proved to be very popular across a range of disciplines because of its easy-to-follow style, and simple guide to SPSS. This thoroughly revised and updated international edition builds on those strengths. The book uses a step-by-step method with screen images of SPSS commands and output to provide the reader with a comprehensive manual for using SPSS to analyze data.Exercises at the end of each chapter are designed to reinforce understanding of the procedures and to gain confidence in using SPSS. Model answers are provided at the back of the book along with key equations and an extensive glossary of terms. An ideal textbook for any introductory course in statistics in social and health sciences, and a wide range of other applied disciplines. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Great book for novices
Real joy to read , easy to follow , great examples , if you want to know about statistics as well as spss please look no more & save your pennies. it does not support spss11. that's not even a drawback. if you are looking for PhD pretty simple for you

Learn statistics and SPSS at the same time!
I was told that it is impossible to learn statistics and SPSS at the same time but this book proves that it can be done. It is very logical and the increasing complexity is easy to follow and the examples used in the book are easy to understand. Each chapter ends with an exercise section which helps to test your comprehension of the chapter. I have already used 4 other books and this is the best. Don't bother wasting your money and time with other books. I highly recommend it.

Statistics for the "Numerically Challenged!"
This is the rarest of statistics texts that combines complete accessibility (especially to "numerically challenged" students) with rigorous treatments of introductory and advanced statistical concepts. The integration of SPSS menus directly into the text is a unique and outstanding feature that allows for the seamless integration of this software package into lectures, problem sets, and exams. Practitioners will also love this book. This is THE text you want to own!!!

Jason Hecht

Assistant Professor of Finance
Ramapo College of New Jersey

Reviews from some journals
`This is a text that can be strongly recommended....I would imagine this book would be useful as a set text for undergraduate modules in social statistics, or as a resource on postgraduate degrees in social science that take a quantitative focus' -
Medical Sociology News

`This book is a detailed and very practical manual introducing statistical methods for research.... In its treatment of statistics the book is accurate and has obviously been edited with great care.... For the reviewer, the main attraction of the book was the detailed explanation of principles that underlie test formulae. As a result, the mystery of statistical output is removed and the simple practicalities are laid bare. This approach, so necessary for deep learning, makes the work far more than a statistical recipe book with a DIY computing section. The author has gone to considerable lengths to assist students by including example questions with model answers, a glossary of terms, a list of key equations and a selection of statistical tables. A CD-ROM containing data files for student exercises is provided with the book and a public access Internet address is given for readers to obtain updated files.... For undergraduate and graduate students seeking to acquire an understanding of statistical methods for research, and the associated SPSS procedures, this book provides an excellent introduction' -
Journal of Advanced Nursing ... Read more

Book Description

Qualitative Methods for Health Research is a practical introduction to designing, conducting and appraising qualitative research in areas such as public health, health services research, nursing and health promotion.

This book will be useful for professionals and students with little prior knowledge of social science theory. The authors provide a clear guide for the reader who would like to know more about how to apply their skills to the field of health.

Using examples from health research projects in a wide range of settings, it introduces readers to the key debates in qualitative methodology, issues in designing ethical and feasible projects, the main methods of collecting and analyzing qualitative data, and ways of reading and writing qualitative research.

Key features include:

- case studies

- chapter summaries

- highlighted key points

A basic understanding of methodological principles is as important in applied as in academic work. Health professionals and students alike will learn a great deal about applying methods from this textbook.

Book Description

Provides a clear understanding of the application of mixed models, and describes the benefits to be gained from their use as well as the practical implications. Mixed models is becoming a popular method of statistical analysis used for analysing medical data, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry. This method often gives improvements over conventional fixed effect models, especially when data are unbalanced. Presently there is no other book covering the application of mixed models to clinical data, making this book essential reading for those involved in this subject.

Features include:

* Takes a balanced view of mixed models by discussing some of the problems in their use and indicates where more conventional fixed effect models might be preferred.

* Easily accessible to practitioners in any areas where mixed models are used, including medical statisticians and economists

* Illustrated with numerous medical examples which clearly demonstrate the application of the theory

* Extensive coverage of the underlying theory

* Devotes a complete chapter to the use of software procedures and macros to fit mixed models.

This title is aimed at medical, applied and bio-statisticians, along with teachers and students of advanced statistics courses in mixed models. The book is also suitable for medical scientists who need to understand the techniques used and the assumuptions which underpin their use. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

exccellent book, wish the price is cheaper
One of my collegues recommended this book to me. It surprised me that it has a very broader coverage of topics in medicine where mixed model is appropriate. This book talked many pratical issues such as "why the mixed model failed to converge" etc. The mathematical background is not demanding.

Another advantage of this book is that there are so many examples in the book. ... Read more

Book Description

Many health care practitioners and researchers are aware of the need to employ factor analysis in order to develop more sensitive instruments for data collection. Unfortunately, factor analysis is not a unidimensional approach that is easily understood by even the most experienced of researchers.

Making Sense of Factor Analysis: The Use of Factor Analysis for Instrument Development in Health Care Research presents a straightforward explanation of the complex statistical procedures involved in factor analysis. Authors Marjorie A. Pett, Nancy M. Lackey, and John J. Sullivan provide a step-by-step approach to analyzing data using statistical computer packages like SPSS and SAS. Emphasizing the interrelationship between factor analysis and test construction, the authors examine numerous practical and theoretical decisions that must be made to efficiently run and accurately interpret the outcomes of these sophisticated computer programs.

This accessible volume will help both novice and experienced health care professionals to

• Increase their knowledge of the use of factor analysis in health care research
• Understand journal articles that report the use of factor analysis in test construction and instrument development
• Create new data collection instruments
• Examine the reliability and structure of existing health care instruments
• Interpret and report computer-generated output from a factor analysis run

Making Sense of Factor Analysis: The Use of Factor Analysis for Instrument Development in Health Care Research offers a practical method for developing tests, validating instruments, and reporting outcomes through the use of factor analysis. To facilitate learning, the authors provide concrete testing examples, three appendices of additional information, and a glossary of key terms. Ideal for graduate level nursing students, this book is also an invaluable resource for health care researchers.

Book Description

E-Health, Telehealth, and Telemedicine is a hands-on resource that shows how communication technologies can be designed, implemented, and managed to help health care professionals expand and transform their organizations. Step by step the authors reveal how to introduce innovative communication tools to a wide range of health care settings. This indispensable book contains a wealth of information, suggestions, and advice about program development, ethical, legal and regulatory issues, and and technical options. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

First-Rate Introduction To E-Health
This is a great resource. I have taught a class in computers in health care for undergraduates seeking degrees in health care administration since 1985; I've spent an increasing amount of time on telemedicine and e-health topics.

The authors have done a great job in pulling together all of the facts and concepts needed to effectively teach this subject. Detailed chapters on technologies, applications, and how to get started provide an excellent foundation. Chapters on challenges to maintaining confidentiality of patient information, malpractice pitfalls and ethical concerns with e-health are perfect for teachers and are essential reading to all professionals who are involved in the provision of these services. Final chapters emphasizing the evaluation of programs using these emerging (and imperfect) technologies temper the "let's do it because we can" spirit of telemedicine enthusiasts with the "let's make sure it works in the real world" concerns of administrators.

I'm particularly pleased with the effort made in every chapter to put a human face on the technologies involved. Much better than dry feature lists, these real-world examples will help my students (some of whom are health care practitioners returning for another degree) really understand what e-health will mean to us all.

If you are looking for the best book available on this topic, look no further. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Well-written, concise guide for many practical situations
I found this book to be extremely useful for a new person entering clinical practice. The book is well-written and gives examples and dialogue that can be used in various situations. It takes into account client culture, gender and experience, which is vital in a communication guide. ... Read more

Book Description

This best selling book on medical statistics has been updated and expanded to take into account recent developments and trends in the way statistics is taught and used in medicine and has new sections on summarising qualitative data including measures such as number needed to treat, logistic regression, quasi-experimental studies, and cluster randomised trials. It uses real examples taken from current literature and is highly readable and easy-to-use.
Written by two experts with wide teaching and consulting experience, the book is designed for medical students and nurses but will also be invaluable to practising doctors wishing to remind themselves of the essentials of statistical design and interpretation. ... Read more

Book Description

Computer Assisted Analysis of Mixtures summarizes developments in the field over the last 20 years . Along with advancements in theory and algorithms, it explores developments in biometric applications, such as meta-analysis, disease mapping, fertility studies, estimation of prevalence under clustering, and estimation of the distribution of survival times under interval-censoring. The approach is nonparametric for the mixing distribution, including leaving the number of components of the mixing distribution unknown. The text is particularly valuable to statisticians working with pharmaceutical clinical trials, epidemiologists, and social scientists. ... Read more

Book Description

Survival analysis deals with the distribution of life times, essentially the times from an initiating event such as birth or the start of a job to some terminal event such as death or pension. This book, originally published in 1980, surveys and analyzes methods that use survival measurements and concepts, and helps readers apply the appropriate method for a given situation. Four broad sections cover introductions to data, univariate survival function, multiple-failure data, and advanced topics. ... Read more

Book Description

The new edition adds a chapter on multiple linear regression in biomedical research, with sections including the multiple linear regressions model and least squares; the ANOVA table, parameter estimates, and confidence intervals; partial f-tests; polynomial regression; and analysis of covariance.
* Organized by problem rather than method, so it guides readers to the correct technique for solving the problem at hand. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

nice reference for biostatisticians & medical professionals
This is the second edition of a highly acclaimed text. Like the first edition this book gives an excellent overview of statistical problems in the medical field and provides illustrations of a variety of parametric and nonparametric statistical techniques for solving these problems. It is aimed at the intermediate level rather than as an introductory course. So medical professionals, with a first course in biostatistics under their belt, will find this useful. It is also a good text for graduate students in statistics or biostatistics. Examples are illustrated throughout the text using SAS software. This is a key addition to this edition of the book. Also added in this edition is a chapter on multiple regression where various model selection procedures are nicely covered.

A nice feature of the book is its coverage of epidemiologic methods and data. This was also a strength of the first edition.

I was a little disappointed that the authors did not take the opportunity to significantly update the bibliography. Only a few references are given in the latter chapters to books and articles that appeared after the publication of the first edition in 1987. Also, the authors missed an opportunity to discuss the advances in computing that have led to new methods including Markov Chain Monte Carlo and resampling, both of which have found many applciations in medical research. Bioinformatics and advances in genetics are also playing a major role in medical research, having blossomed since the publication of the first edition of the book. Although I would not expect these topics to necessarily get much coverage, I think they are important enough to at least be mentioned and discussed and have key articles and books referenced.

This is an excellent text for a second course in biostatistics for health care professionals. For a first course the book I am writing with Bob Friis will be useful and it is up to date and even provides some coverage of resampling methods. It will be published by Wiley in early 2003. ... Read more

Book Description

This volume is the proceedings of the 7th MathematicalModeling in Experimental Nutrition Conference held at Penn StateUniversity July 29 until August 1, 2000. The book addresses thedetermination of optimal intakes of nutrients and food components toprovide lifelong health and reduce incidence of disease. Mathematicalmodelling provides a means of rigorously defining the functions of asystem and using a variety of conditions to stimulate responses. Thisvolume presents the newest advances in modelling and relatedexperimental techniques required to meet the new challenges currentlyfacing nutrition and biological science. ... Read more

Book Description

The Foundations of Epidemiology is an introductory level text intended for a broad range of courses in epidemiology, including those in medical schools, schools of public health, dental schools, schools of nursing, and other professional schools.Minimal familiarity with statistics is assumed in the book, although the text is not intended as a primary introduction to statistics; an appendix provides the necessary overview of statistics necessary to understand epidemiologic concepts, including sampling, significance testing, confidence intervals, correlation and linear regression, relative risks and attributable fractions, the life table, and Cohen's Kappa statistic.

Basic epidemiologic concepts, such as rates and ratios, age adjustment, incubation periods, investigation of an outbreak time-place-and person, agent-value, inter- and intra-observer variability, odds ratios, randomized trials, and cohort and case-control study designs are illustrated using examples from a variety of conditions, including asthma, food poisoning, coronary heart disease, measles, stroke, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, venous thrombosis, histoplasmosis, lyme disease, and AIDS.

The text consists of 13 chapters, each of which includes study problems and solutions.A discussion of the uses of epidemiology in clinical settings includes a guide to the critical review of medical and related literature. ... Read more

Book Description

Timely, authoritative, complete-a comprehensive guide to managing data in clinical trials

At some point during their training, virtually all health professionals are exposed to the theory of clinical trials, but few are taught about the practical details of organizing and conducting a clinical trial. This book fills that gap in training.

Management of Data in Clinical Trials is a valuable working resource for anyone involved in any type of clinical trial-from large multicenter trials to small single-investigator studies. The information is relevant to trials in all disease areas, done in any clinical setting, and is general enough to be applicable both within and outside the United States. This authoritative handbook offers in-depth coverage of accrual and follow-up phases of a clinical trial and provides valuable expert advice and step-by-step guidance on:
* Trial planning and resource assessment
* Developing a trial protocol and case report forms
* Selection and use of computers and software for clinical trials
* Eligibility checking and patient registration
* Data collection and data entry
* Quality control systems at the local and central levels
* Training and education of data management staff
* The role of data management in implementing good clinical practice (GCP)
* Development of software tools for trial management ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Out of Date
The methodologies described are out of date. The descriptions are inadequate.

Management of Data in Clinical Trials (Wiley Series in Proba
The authors gave an excellent overview af scientific skills used in the field of clinical research. ... Read more