FUNDAMENTALS OF MEDICAL RESEARCH:
For emerging researchers
Lap Lambert, Germany
List price Euro 79.00, US$97.00
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CONTENTS
1 Fundamentals of Medical Research
1.1 Medical Research and this Book
1.1.1 Fundamentals of Medical Research
1.1.2 SCOPE OF THIS BOOK
1.2 STEPS IN MEDICAL RESEARCH
1.2.1 PREINVESTIGATION STEPS
1.2.2 INVESTIGATION STEPS
1.2.3 POSTINVESTIGATION STEPS
1.3 ETHICS OF MEDICAL RESEARCH
1.3.1 ETHICS FOR ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION
1.3.2 ETHICS FOR RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN SUBJECTS
1.3.3 PLEASURES AND FRUSTRATIONS OF MEDICAL RESEARCH
1.4 RESEARCH PROTOCOL
1.4.1 THE PROBLEM, OBJECTIVES, AND HYPOTHESES
1.4.2 PROTOCOL CONTENT
REFERENCES
2 Medical Uncertainties in Research
2.1 VARIETIES OF UNCERTAINTIES IN MEDICAL RESEARCH
2.1.1 SOURCES OF UNCERTAINTIES
2.1.2 ALEATORY UNCERTAINTIES
2.1.3 EPISTEMIC UNCERTAINTIES
2.2 CONTROLLING SOME EPISTEMIC UNCERTAINTIES
2.2.1 CLINIMETRICS
2.2.2 OTHER TOOLS TO CONTROL EPISTEMIC UNCERTAINTIES
2.3 ASSESSING UNCERTAINTIES
2.3.1 THE ROLE OF BIOSTATISTICS
2.3.2 THE CONCEPTS OF RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY
2.3.3 VALIDITY OF RESEARCH TOOLS
REFERENCES
3 Review of Literature and Data
3.1 SEARCHING MEDICAL LITERATURE
3.1.1 LIBRARY CONSULTATION
3.1.2 ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
3.2 CRITIQUE OF A MEDICAL REPORT
3.2.1 ASSESS QUALITY OF PUBLICATIONS
3.2.2 ASSESS THE CONTENTS
3.3 SEARCHING THE EXISTING DATA
3.3.1 RECORDS OF PATIENTS
3.3.2 REPORTS
3.3.3 CAUTIONS IN USING SECONDARY DATA
REFERENCES
4 Clinical Trials
4.1 BASICS OF CLINICAL TRIALS
4.1.1 PHASES OF A CLINICAL TRIAL
4.1.2 RANDOMISATION
4.1.3 CONTROL GROUP IN A CLINICAL TRIAL
4.1.4 SUPERIORITY, EQUIVALENCE AND NONINFERIORITY TRIALS
4.1.5 SOME SPECIAL DESIGNS FOR CLINICAL TRIALS
4.1.6 PROPHYLACTIC AND FIELD TRIALS
4.2 VALIDITY OF A CLINICAL TRIAL
4.2.1 SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS
4.2.2 SIZE OF THE TRIAL
4.2.3 BLINDING AND MASKING
4.2.4 COMPLIANCE
4.2.5 CHOOSING A DESIGN FOR A TRIAL
4.2.6 REPORTING RESULTS OF A TRIAL
4.3 VARIETIES OF BIAS TO GUARD AGAINST
REFERENCES
5 Designs for Epidemiological Research and Medical Experiments
5.1 OVERVIEW OF DESIGNS FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH
5.1.1 DESCRIPTIVE STUDY
5.1.2 ANALYTICAL STUDY
5.2 OBSERVATIONAL (EPIDEMIOLOGICAL) STUDIES
5.2.1 PROSPECTIVE STUDY
5.2.2 RETROSPECTIVE STUDY
5.2.3 CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY
5.2.4 COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF PROSPECTIVE, RETROSPECTIVE, AND CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDIES
5.3 DESIGNS OF LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS
5.3.1 LABORATORY AND ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS
5.3.2 FEATURES OF EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS
5.3.3 ONE-WAY, TWO-WAY AND FACTORIAL DESIGNS
REFERENCES
6 Sampling and Sample Size
6.1 PURPOSIVE AND RANDOM SAMPLING
6.1.1 PURPOSIVE SAMPLING (NONRANDOM SAMPLING)
6.1.2 RANDOM SAMPLING
6.2 SAMPLING FOR DESCRIPTIVE STUDIES
6.2.1 SAMPLING FOR SMALLER STUDIES
6.2.2 SAMPLING FOR LARGE STUDIES
6.2.3 OTHER METHODS OF RANDOM SAMPLING
6.3 SAMPLING FOR ANALYTICAL STUDIES
6.3.1 SAMPLING METHODS IN OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES
6.3.2 SAMPLING METHODS IN EXPERIMENTS AND TRIALS
6.4 SAMPLING AND NONSAMPLING ERRORS
6.4.1 SAMPLING ERRORS
6.4.2 NONSAMPLING ERRORS
6.5 DETERMINATION OF SAMPLE SIZE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH
6.5.1 SAMPLE SIZE FOR DESCRIPTIVE STUDIES (SAMPLE SURVEYS)
6.5.2 SAMPLE SIZE FOR ANALYTICAL STUDIES
REFERENCES
Annex 1
7 Data Management
7.1 SOURCES OF MEDICAL DATA
7.1.1 SECONDARY AND PRIMARY SOURCES OF DATA
7.1.2 INTERVIEW, EXAMINATION, AND INVESTIGATION
7.1.3 QUESTIONNAIRE, SCHEDULE, AND PROFORMA
7.2 QUALITY OF DATA
7.2.1 RELIABILITY, VALIDITY AND ACCURACY OF DATA
7.2.2 OTHER ASPECTS OF DATA QUALITY
7.3 TYPES OF MEASUREMENTS
7.3.1 QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENTS
7.3.2 QUALITATIVE MEASUREMENTS
7.3.3 INDICATORS, INDEXES, AND SCORES
7.4 COLLATION OF DATA
7.4.1 TABLES
7.4.2 GRAPHS AND DIAGRAMS
7.4.3 STANDARDISATION AND OTHER ADJUSTMENTS FOR DATA COMPARABILITY
REFERENCES
8 Assessment of Health and Disease in Research
8.1 STATISTICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MEDICAL MEASUREMENTS
8.1.1 SHAPE OF A DISTRIBUTION
8.1.2 REPRESENTATIVE SUMMARY MEASURES FOR QUANTITATIVE DATA
8.1.3 SUMMARY MEASURES FOR QUALITATIVE DATA
8.2 NORMAL VS. ABNORMAL LEVELS
8.2.1 VARIATION IN MEANING OF NORMAL
8.2.2 IMPLICATIONS OF STATISTICAL NORMALS
8.3 ASSESSMENT OF MEDICAL FACTORS
8.3.1 INTRICACIES OF ASSESSMENT
8.3.2 TYPES OF MEDICAL FACTORS
8.3.3 DISEASE SPECTRUM
8.4 ASSESSMENT OF MORTALITY AND DURATION OF SURVIVAL
8.4.1 ASSESSMENT OF MORTALITY
8.4.2 DURATION OF SURVIVAL
8.4.3 QUALITY OF LIFE
8.5 EPIDEMIOLOGICAL INDICES
8.5.1 RATE, RISK, HAZARD, AND ODDS
8.5.2 INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE
8.5.3 SENSITIVITY, SPECIFICITY, AND PREDICTIVITIES
8.5.4 DIAGNOSTIC THRESHOLDS AND COMPARISON OF TESTS
REFERENCES
9 Statistical Evaluation
9.1 RELATIVE RISK, ODDS RATIO, AND ATTRIBUTABLE RISK
9.1.1 RELATIVE RISK AND ODDS RATIO
9.1.2 ATTRIBUTABLE RISK AND OTHER KINDS OF RISK MEASURES
9.2 STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
9.2.1 STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE, P-VALUE, AND POWER
9.2.2 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
9.3 TESTS FOR STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
9.3.1 SOME STATISTICAL TESTS FOR QUALITATIVE DATA
9.3.2 SOME STATISTICAL TESTS FOR QUANTITATIVE DATA
9.4 CONFIDENCE INTERVALS FOR MEDICAL PARAMETERS
9.4.1 CI FOR PROPORTION AND MEAN
9.4.2 CI FOR RELATIVE RISK (RR) AND ODDS RATIO (OR)
9.5 RELATIONSHIPS
9.5.1 GENERAL FEATURES OF A REGRESSION
9.5.2 LOGISTIC REGRESSION FOR MEDICAL FACTORS
9.5.3 LINEAR AND COX REGRESSION
REFERENCES
10 Credibility of Research Results
10.1 ROBUSTNESS OF RESEARCH RESULTS
10.1.1 EXTERNAL VALIDATION
10.1.2 UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS
10.1.3 SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
10.2 STATISTICAL FALLACIES
10.2.1 CHERRY-PICKING THE STATISTICAL INDICES
10.2.2 FALLACIOUS INTERPRETATION
10.3 CAUSE-EFFECT RELATIONSHIP IN MEDICAL RESEARCH
10.3.1 EVIDENCE OF CAUSE-EFFECT
10.3.2 ASSESSMENT OF CAUSE-EFFECT IN RESEARCH
10.3.3 MULTIFACTORIAL CAUSATION
REFERENCES
11 Scientific Communication
11.1 WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
11.1.1 TEXT STYLE
11.1.2 TABLES
11.1.3 ILLUSTRATIONS
11.2 ORAL PRESENTATION
11.2.1 ESSENTIALS OF EFFECTIVE PRESENTATION
11.2.2 PRESENTATION AIDS
11.3 POSTER PRESENTATION
11.3.1 FORMAT AND CONTENT OF A POSTER
11.3.2 LAYOUT OF A POSTER
11.4 REPORTING ETHICS
11.4.1 DUPLICATION
11.4.2 CONFLICTS
11.4.3 CONFIDENTIALITY AND MISREPORTING
11.4.4 THE KEY IS COMMON SENSE
REFERENCES
12 Manuscript Preparation and Thesis Writing
12.1 FEATURES OF A MANUSCRIPT
12.1.1 ESSENTIAL FEATURES
12.1.2 THESES AND DISSERTATIONS
12.2 PRELIMINARIES OF A MANUSCRIPT
12.2.1 TITLE
12.2.2 AUTHORSHIP CREDITS
12.2.3 KEYWORDS
12.2.4 ABSTRACT/SUMMARY
12.3 MAIN BODY OF THE MANUSCRIPT
12.3.1 INTRODUCTION
12.3.2 METHODS
12.3.3 RESULTS
12.3.4 DISCUSSION
12.4 END FEATURES OF A MANUSCRIPT
12.4.1 ACKNOWLEDGMENT ETHICS
12.4.2 KEY MESSAGES
12.4.3 REFERENCES
12.4.4 APPENDIX
REFERENCES