Book Description

Popular in its first edition for its clear delineation of the issues and the way it prepared readers for Doing Qualitative Research, particularly in health settings, this new second edition will show readers new ways of knowing, how to ask questions at multiple system levels (from global to family to the cell) and the incursive interaction between these levels, and ways to expand existing research approaches.

New to this edition is more on various collection methods as well as more detail on the interpretive process. Chapters are written by a gifted researchers, many of whom are also clinicians, who define their topic, reveal themselves and the context of their discussion, define the key themes and processes, provide interesting descriptive examples, explore theory, recognize the importance of culture, and share their excitement of discovery.

Organized to follow the structure of the qualitative research process, the book begins with an overview of how to decide what methods to use based on aims, objectives, questions, and paradigms of knowing. New, sampling issues and options are highlighted followed by comprehensive coverage of such topics as participant observation, key information interviewing, depth interviews, focus groups, the interpretive process, detailed descriptions of actual analyses using different analysis organizing styles, and the use of computer software for qualitative data management that includes a detailed demonstration of two particular programs, NUD*IST and FolioViews.

The last sections of the book covers specific qualitative designs that are relevant to primary care research, a summary of our present understandings concerning standards in qualitative research, and the role of qualitative research in the future of primary care research.

Book Description

A unique overview that melds the concepts of conditional probability and stochastic processes into real-life applications

The role of randomization techniques in clinical trials has become increasingly important. This comprehensive guide combines both the applied aspects of randomization in clinical trials with a probabilistic treatment of properties of randomization. Taking an unabashedly non-Bayesian and nonparametric approach to inference, the book focuses on the linear rank test under a randomization model, with added discussion on likelihood-based inference as it relates to sufficiency and ancillarity. Developments in stochastic processes and applied probability are also given where appropriate. Intuition is stressed over mathematics, but not without a clear development of the latter in the context of the former.

Providing a consolidated review of the field, the book includes relevant and practical discussions of:
* The benefits of randomization in terms of reduction of bias
* Randomization as a basis for inference
* Covariate-adaptive and response-adaptive randomization
* Current philosophies, controversies, and new developments

With ample problem sets, theoretical exercises, and short computer simulations using SAS, Randomization in Clinical Trials: Theory and Practice is equally useful as a standard textbook in biostatistics graduate programs as well as a reliable reference for biostatisticians in practice. ... Read more

Book Description

Computational and Evolutionary Analysis of HIV Molecular Sequences is for all researchers interested in HIV research, even those who only have a nodding acquaintance with computational biology (or those who are familiar with some, but not all, aspects of the field). HIV research is unusual in that it brings together scientists from a wide range of disciplines: clinicians, pathologists, immunologists, epidemiologists, virologists, computational biologists, structural biologists, evolutionary biologists, statisticians and mathematicians. This book seeks to bridge the gap between these groups, in both subject matter and terminology. Focused largely on HIV genetic variation, Computational and Evolutionary Analysis of HIV Molecular Sequences covers such issues as sampling and processing sequences, population genetics, phylogenetics and drug targets. ... Read more

Book Description

The second edition of an international bestseller, this book provides veterinary specialists as well as veterinary and biomedical researchers with detailed information about laboratory animal genetics, diseases, health monitoring, nutrition, and environmental impact on animal experiments. Completely revised and updated, Volume I now contains expanded coverage of topics such as procedures in genetic engineering, surgical techniques, and humane endpoints and the treatment of pain and suffering in laboratory animals. It includes a new, streamlined chapter that combines the review of alternative techniques to animal experimentation such as the use of isolated organs, cell cultures, and computer simulations. ... Read more

Book Description

This book serves as a comprehensive reference for a variety of research situations. This edition reflects the popular approaches to analysis and design, and addresses the focus of health-care related research through the 1990s and into the 21st century. Expanded or added topics include outcomes research and the disablement model, validity and diagnostic screening, meta-analysis, scales used in survey and outcomes research, logistic regression, measures of reliability, and data management to prepare for computer analysis. For those in the health professions, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, nursing, and exercise physiology. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Exceptional (Must for all PT Students)
Excellent text for students just entering the profession to hard core researches.

Outstanding clarity and comprehensiveness
This book can hardly be recommended enough to both beginning and advanced researchers. It provides an extraordinary breadth and depth of information about research methodology, implementation and statistical analysis. It is written in a clear straightforward style that makes arcane topics understanble without oversimplification. Congratulations to the authors on a difficult job well done! ... Read more

Book Description

Loyola Univ, Maywood, IL. Text provides classic and contemporary protocols in the area of wound healing. Includes model systems, describes methods for the analysis and manipulation of the healing wound, and reviews specific model systems in which underlying systemic and genetic conditions influence the healing process. ... Read more

Book Description

Few technical manuals have become standards in biomedicine. Antibodies: A Laboratory Manual, by Ed Harlow and David Lane, has had that status for a decade. Now there is a new and even higher standard—Using Antibodies: A Laboratory Manual.

Harlow and Lane have completely revised their guide to the use of immunoglobulin reagents in the laboratory. Chapters have been entirely rewritten, reorganized, and updated to provide background, context, and step-by-step instructions for techniques that range from choosing the right antibody and handling it correctly, to the proper methods for characterizing antigens in cells and solutions. New chapters on tagging proteins and epitope mapping are included.

Rather than presenting an array of solutions for working with antibodies and antigens, Using Antibodies instead identifies in each case the best approach to specific problems. These recommendations include more detail in the protocols, extensive advice on avoiding and solving problems, information regarding proper controls, and extensive illustration of theory, methods, and results, both good and bad. An additional bonus included with this manual is a set of Portable Protocols, step-by-step instructions for the most frequently used and essential techniques printed on spill-proof, durable cards that can be annotated and used directly at the bench.

The expert advice in Using Antibodies is presented using an imaginative design with extensive use of color and graphic elements calculated to help readers plan and execute their experiments efficiently and accurately. A newly available type of binding will maintain the manual's integrity during years of use. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Should be [less money], Not [more money]!
Although I liked the outdated 1988 version of this book, this one is extremely simplistic and omits much of the previously included material. Most of the information included can be found on the web and is shallow compared to Current Protocols or other texts. Although it serves as a reasonable introduction for novices to this area it's extremely overpriced for [money]!!!

I would reccomend Monoclonal Antibodies by Goding ([money]),

Two Thumbs Up
This is an exceptional reference for anyone using abtibodies in the laboratory. It is a *must-have* for anyone venturing into unknown teritory. For the experienced individual forced to bang out new protocols with a cranky antibody, this reference is priceless. ... Read more

Book Description

This comprehensive, unified text on the principles and practice of clinical trials presents a detailed account of how to conduct the trials. It describes the design, analysis, and interpretation of clinical trials in a non-technical manner and provides a general perspective on their historical development, current status, and future strategy. Features examples derived from the author's personal experience. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Review of Clinical Trials: A practical approach
I found this book almost 15 years ago when first designing a series of clinical trials for cytomegaovirus prevention in organ transplantation. It is a very practical "how to" volume, extremely well written and concise. I recommend this to all clinical investigators who are starting out, and for all trainees. I have been waiting for his revised edition for over a decade and only hope he will update this great book. ... Read more

Book Description

Grant Application Writer's Handbook, Fourth Edition, addresses the key points in developing grant proposals in a hands-on, step-by-step method, with sample forms and tips for getting approved and funded. Both first-time grant seekers, and those who have already attempted to get funding can benefit from the wealth of updated information regarding the grant application process, including funding sources and newly instituted electronic submission guidelines. A prolific contributor to scientific literature, and a national consultant on the grant application process, author Dr. Liane Reif-Lehrer uses her extensive experience to present the general concepts that will help the reader write a good grant proposal or research paper efficiently.

Having spent much of her academic career funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), and with the additional experience serving as a member of an NIH Study Section, she guides the reader through those questions that successful grant-getters must answer before writing a grant application, and presents a sequence of steps that help optimize success in obtaining funding. With her personal experience with the NIH, Dr. Reif-Lehrer understands the review process, and discusses the common elements that many funding agencies want, in order to ensure their money is well invested and will get the best possible return. ... Read more

Book Description

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) models have become widely used tools and play a fundamental role in much of the application of statistics today. In particular, ANOVA models involving random effects have found widespread application to experimental design in a variety of fields requiring measurements of variance, including agriculture, biology, animal breeding, applied genetics, econometrics, quality control, medicine, engineering, and social sciences. This two-volume work is a comprehensive presentation of different methods and techniques for point estimation, interval estimation, and tests of hypotheses for linear models involving random effects. Both Bayesian and repeated sampling procedures are considered. Volume I examines models with balanced data (orthogonal models); Volume II studies models with unbalanced data (nonorthogonal models). Features and Topics:* Systematic treatment of the commonly employed crossed and nested classification models used in analysis of variance designs * Detailed and thorough discussion of certain random effects models not commonly found in texts at the introductory or intermediate level * Numerical examples to analyze data from a wide variety of disciplines * Many worked examples containing computer outputs from standard software packages such as SAS, SPSS, and BMDP for each numerical example * Extensive exercise sets at the end of each chapter * Numerous appendices with background reference concepts, terms, and results * Balanced coverage of theory, methods, and practical applications * Complete citations of important and related works at the end of each chapter, as well as an extensive general bibliography Accessible to readers with only a modest mathematical and statistical background, the work will appeal to a broad audience of students, researchers, and practitioners in the mathematical, life, social, and engineering sciences. It may be used as a textbook in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses, or as a reference for readers interested in the use of random effects models for data analysis. ... Read more

Book Description

Patient management is the central clinical task of medical care. Until the 1970s, there was no generally accepted method of ensuring a scientific, critical approach to clinical decision making. And while traditional clinical authority was under attack, there was increasing concern about the way in which doctors made decisions about patient care. In this book, Jeanne Daly traces the origins, essential features, and achievements of evidence-based medicine and clinical epidemiology over the past few decades. Drawing largely on interviews with key players, she offers unique insights into the ways that practitioners of evidence-based medicine set out to generate scientific knowledge about patient care and how, in the process, they reshaped the way medicine is practiced and administered. ... Read more

Book Description

Third Edition brings the text up to date with new material and updated references.
* New content includes an introduction to left and interval censored data; the log-logistic distribution; estimation procedures for left and interval censored data; parametric methods iwth covariates; Cox's proportional hazards model (including stratification and time-dependent covariates); and multiple responses to the logistic regression model.
* Coverage of graphical methods has been deleted.
* Large data sets are provided on an FTP site for readers' convenience.
* Bibliographic remarks conclude each chapter. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

It's the best resource I found for survival data analysis!
As a graduate student in epidemiology who is incessantly looking for better ways to learn abstract concepts in statistics, I highly recommend this book by Elisa Lee. It's one of the few books that I found which explains advanced level statistics, such as parametric and non-parametric analysis, in a way that non-statisticans like myself can understand. It's also a handy reference to have at your side while reading the methods section of journal articles. ... Read more

Book Description

At a time of increased interest and renewed shock over the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, Acres of Skin sheds light on yet another dark episode of American medical history. In this disturbing expose, Allen M. Hornblum tells the story of Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison. For more than two decades, from the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s, inmates were used, in exchange for a few dollars, as guinea pigs in a host of medical experiments.
Based on in-depth interviews with dozens of prisoners as well as the doctors and prison officials who performed or enforced these experimental tests, Hornblum paints a disturbing portrait of abuse, moral indifference, and greed. Cantral to this account are the millions of dollars many of America's leading drug and consumer goods companies made available for the all too eager doctors seeking fame and fortune through their medical experiments.

In addition to testing innocuous commerical products such as detergents, shampoos and diet drinks, the experiments at Holmesburg evolved into a far more dangerous corrupted human laboratory. Hundreds of prisoners were subjected to painful skin hardening experiments, fingernail extraction studies, chemical warfare agents, and frighteningly high does of dioxin and radioactive isotopes. Many of the test subjects became ill, required hospitalization and are scarred for life. However, as prisoners were viewed by corporate America and US government as valuable "raw materials" for product development.

In often graphic detail, Acres of Skin exposes what really happened behind the locked doors of this American prison where men were treated like laboratory animals. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

A Shocking Expose Relevant in Today's World
And you thought that horrible "medical" experiments on humans only took place in Germany and Japan during World War II?This exhaustively researched and documented book about using prisoners in Pennsylvania as guinea pigs to test the safety and efficacy of various types of medical, pharmacutical, cosmetic, and military products during the post-war years was an enormous surprise to this reader.

How so many highly respected and educated Americans could take part in these such immoral behavior is extremely instructive in light of the involvement of American military reservists in the recent Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.Apparently normal human beings taking part in abberant behavior as a result of certain unusual circumstances, occurred in Nazi Germany and Japan during the war, in Pennsylvania during the post-war years, and now at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.Although the physicians and scientists in this book were studying the effects of pharmacuticals on human beings, often with horrific results, this book is a fascinating study of the persons conducting the experiments and how they came to justify their actions.

Fluff
My god man. How much fluff can you put into one book. Mr. Hornblum, I have so much information to attain and so many books waiting on a list to be read that anything with useless time wasting fluff, aka long drawn out paragraphs, automatically goes on my "how not to write a book" list. I am sorry but your book made me more frustrated than enlightened, with all of your redundant repeats of what people said, told in eight differing ways, I am not sure if you thought the audience needed this much repeating or if you just needed to add a couple 20 pages to the final draft for appearances. But nonetheless I cannot sit and waste my precious time reading words of nothingness when there is an eternity of usefull information sitting out there waiting for me. *No arrogance intended, "I" as in us, humans.* I just don't see any excuse for this. Out of the 100% of book I would say there is about 25-35% of usefull concise information in it. Au Revoir`

A book you can't find anywhere else!
I know the author of the book. He has a strong personality, the same time a kind and loving person! He went through many difficulties for publishing this book but none stopped him from revealing the truth!

Shocking!
We are all aware of the nuclear experiments done during the cold war, right? Well insight shows from this book that many prisoners and people of lower social classes were experimental guinea pigs in the name of Modern Science. It is horrifying to read, and yet interesting at the same time. We also brought over experimental Nazi Doctors from the Holocaust to help the US Government on some experiments and were even given alias names to keep their identities and whereabouts secret. This is even happening today believe it or not, and it is horrifying to think what they have done during the Cold War, I come to think, what ... are they doing now? It's a scary thought!

New York Times is wrong: very solid book.
I looked up the negative New York Times book review to see what Higbie's problem was. She thinks Hornblum is biased because he supports "prison reform." The book sticks quite close to the issue of medical experiments in prison, which must be at the very least something in prison in need of "reform". Higbie is also offended by the comparison to Nazi medical practices. But that's not exaggeration by Hornblum. As the book relates, the Nazi doctors at Nuremberg successfully avoided the death penalty by arguing that their own pointless torture experiments were similar to that conducted by U.S. doctors in U.S. prisons.

It's an excellent book. The book focuses on the specific prison, but has a lengthy chapter on experiments on prisoners throughout the U.S.

My only real criticism is the optimistic ending of chapter 3 that the FDA banned prisoner experimentation in the 1980s. As far as I can tell, the regulation was suspended at passage and then repealed in 1997. Fifty years after Nuremberg, experiments on prisoners unable to give informed consent continues. ... Read more

Book Description

Clinical Trials in Oncology emphasizes the importance of proper study design and data management, and explains why communication and partnership between statisticians and clinicians are vital to the conduct of a successful clinical trial.Clinicians face considerable risks-subtle and ever present-when designing trials and interpreting data. This book deals with all aspects of successful trials in a manner accessible to clinicians. Topics addressed include advantages and disadvantages of multi-arm trials; pitfalls to avoid, such as analyzing survival by response or by dose; and how and whether meta-analyses are justified. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Knowing What Works in Health Care
I should begin by admitting that I had the opportunity to review this little masterpiece in manuscript. Good then, it's even better now.

It's good because it informs the reader, in sober prose, how to determine what works and what doesn't in medical practice, and what's safe and what isn't. It's good because it reveals what can go wrong when anecdotes ("it worked for me!") substitute for sound research as the basis for clinical practice. And it's good because it shows how serious are the consequences of even subtle failures to observe protocols in designing and carrying out clinical trials.

It is reassuring to read of the care and precautions advocated for government-sponsored research; it is accordingly unsettling to contemplate the pressure that commercial interests (drug companies, for-profit hospitals, equipment manufacturers) might bring on researchers to cut a few corners.

After reading "Clinical Trials" I came to appreciate that case studies, longitudinal studies, and retrospective questionnaires, so frequently hyped in the press and on television, are no substitute for actual well-designed and well-executed experiments. Because you and I are different, certainly genetically and probably in other essential ways, what helps you may well harm me. Only the proper application of statistics in designing clinical trials and in analyzing data from them can distinguish what's generally valuable from what's useless (however plausible and authoritatively touted it may be). Although the authors had the good taste to reject the aphorism, usually attributed to a nameless statistician, that "if experimentation be the queen of science, then statistics stands as the guardian of the royal virtue", its pithiness may give the reader the crucial insight into why alternative modes of research are untrustworthy.

Some readers may feel disheartened to learn the truth that many, probably most, promising therapies prove, when adequately tested, worthless, and some may feel in some fuzzy way that to accept this reality is cruelly to deny hope to those who need it badly. On the contrary, this book makes it clear that to offer false hope is the ultimate cruelty, for without experimentation there can be no knowledge, and without knowledge there can be no real hope.

Notwithstanding the slightly technical nature of this book (yes, there IS a chapter with mathematics), I recommend it highly for the general reader who is interested in such topics as personal health care, alternative medicine, managed care cost containment, and the like. Buy a copy for yourself, and, if you feel philanthropic, you might consider donating a copy to your health care provider. The world would be better if doctors' waiting rooms (like hotel rooms with their Gideon Bibles) all had a copy of "Clinical Trials in Oncology" available for patients' perusal. ... Read more

Book Description

Provides a practical approach to understanding the components of a clinical research trial as well as the tools to conduct a well- organized study. Designed for those interested in developing or enhancing skills to coordinate all aspects of clinical trials such as regulatory requirements, budgeting, contracts, patient recruitments and participation, and gathering and recording clear, invaluable data. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is a clinically oriented introduction to the new, emerging field of evidence-based medicine. ... Read more

Book Description

How to apply statistical methods to survey data—a guide to effective analysis of health surveys.

With large health surveys becoming increasingly available for public use, researchers with little experience in survey methods are often faced with analyzing data from surveys to address scientific and programmatic questions. This practical book provides statistical techniques for use in survey analysis, making health surveys accessible to statisticians, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, and health researchers. The authors clearly explain the theory and methods of survey analysis along with real-world applications. They draw on their work at the National Institutes of Health as well as up-to-date information from across the literature to present:

• The sampling background necessary to understand health surveys.
• The application of such techniques as t-tests, linear regression, logistic regression, and survival analysis to survey data.
• The use of sample weights in survey data analysis.
• Dealing with complications in variance estimation in large health surveys.
• Applications involving cross-sectional, longitudinal, and multiple cross-sectional surveys, and the use of surveys to perform population- based case-control analyses.
• Guidance on the correct use of statistical methods found in software packages.
• Extensive bibliography. ... Read more

  Reviews (2)

  unique book by two applied statisticians
  Ed Korn and Barry Graubard are two statisticians in the health industry with strong statistical training. This is a very practical and specialized book which deals strictly with health surveys. Several national surveys are discussed. Many of the standard survey sampling topics including stratified random sampling and sampling proportional to size are covered. In addition modern ways for estimating variances including jackknife, balanced half-sample replication and bootstrap are covered. Beyond the standard topics there are topics in survival analysis that are included. Other practical issues such as weighted versus unweighted estimates and the use of imputation methods are included. They also include many exercises at the end of the chapters to make the book suitable for a course on the subject. Whole chapters are dedicated to interesting and unique topics such as "Analysis of Longitudinal Surveys", Chapter 7, "Analyses using Multiple Surveys", Chapter 8, and "Population-Based Case-Control Studies", Chapter 9. Appendix A gives detailed descriptions of the surveys analyzed in the book. It also contains a wealth of useful references from teh statistical literature. A good book for practitioners which does not require very high level mathematics.

  Analysis of Health Surveys
  This is a very good textbook. There is no complex mathematcis, and a lot of real examples and exercises can help readers to understand the materials covered in the book. But it is too simple if it is used as a professional reference. It tries to cover basic survey methodology, weighting, variance estimation, cross-sectional analyses, longitudinal surveys and case-control studies in only such a small book (less than 400 pages). Definately, it can not touch advanced parts of these areas. Anyway, it is very good for college students. You can learn a lot of very interesting ideas though this book even you do not have any knowledge about survey sampling and biostatistics. ... Read more