Understanding Evidence-Based Rheumatology: A Guide to Interpreting Criteria, Drugs, Trials, Registries, and Ethics

by Hasan Yazici (Editor), Yusuf Yazici (Editor), Emmanuel Lesaffre (Editor)

Overview

It is imperative that health professionals caring for patients with rheumatic diseases understand how to correctly interpret evidence in their field, taking into account the merits and shortcomings of available data. Understanding Evidence-Based Rheumatology offers a practical assessment of criteria, drugs, trials, and registries and provides useful tools for successfully interpreting this data. The book introduces readers to basic analysis of trial design, statistics and application of data through no-nonsense, easy-to-follow insights. Using numerous examples, chapters outline the difficulties physicians encounter when measuring disease activity in rheumatology and offer strategies for systematically approaching these situations. Ethical issues in study design and reporting are examined and the book closes with a summary of future directions for scientific and clinical studies in rheumatology.

Understanding Evidence-Based Rheumatology is an invaluable resource for trainees, clinicians and scientists, preparing them with the necessary tools to correctly gather evidence and shed light on the difficult practice of rheumatology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319083742
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	10/29/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	276
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Hasan Yazici, MD, Professor of Medicine

Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

Yusuf Yazici, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine

New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

Emmanuel Lesaffre, PhD

Department of Biostatistics, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

and

L-Biostat, K.U.Leuven

Leuven, Belgium.

Table of Contents

 1. Evidence in Rheumatology: How Does It Differ from Other Diseases?.- 2. A Review of Statistical Approaches for the Analysis of Data in Rheumatology.- 3. Disease Classification/Diagnosis Criteria.- 4. Biomarkers, Genetic Association and Genomic Studies.- 5. Outcome Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis.- 6. Issues in Setting Up a Study and Data Collection.- 7. The Randomized Controlled Trial: Methodological Perspectives.- 8. Limitations of Traditional Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials in Rheumatology.- 9. Methodological Issues Relevant to Observational Studies, Registries and Administrative Health Databases in Rheumatology.- 10. Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses in Rheumatology.- 11. Ethical Issues in Study Design and Reporting.- 12. Future Directions.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Maryam Pourpaki, Rheumatology Fellow(Washington University Medical Center)
Description: This book details how to correctly use and interpret evidence-based medicine in the practice of rheumatology. The authors feel that there has been an unmet need to gather new information and provide an update of a much earlier book on the topic, Evidence-Based Rheumatology, Tugwell et al. (BMJ, 2005).
Purpose: It is a summary of the annual conferences on clinical research methodology which the authors have held in New York and Istanbul since 2006. The main purpose is to help clinicians understand how to use and interpret the evidence in rheumatology practice, which helps to achieve more accurate diagnoses based on specific criteria and diagnostic tools and more satisfactory treatment results based on available data. It also briefly reviews the methodological perspectives of randomized controlled trials.
Audience: The book is written for rheumatologists, rheumatology fellows, and other physicians who take care of patients with rheumatic diseases. The authors are rheumatologists.
Features: This is a guide to using the evidence to interpret disease criteria, drugs, trials, registries, and ethics. It also briefly reviews the basic analysis of clinical trial design. The book is a valuable update of a similar book written a decade ago summarizing the new findings in rheumatology. The authors have tried to summarize many topics and the book is somewhat dense with long paragraphs and few pictures, diagrams, and tables to break up the text.
Assessment: This book focuses on an essential topic for every physician assessing and treating patients with rheumatological disease. However, it would be more readable with more pictures, diagrams, and tables to break up the long paragraphs. I got slightly bored reading through the "word sea." Sentences do not flow, either.

Doody's Review Service

From the book reviews:

“This book details how to correctly use and interpret evidence-based medicine in the practice of rheumatology. … The book is written for rheumatologists, rheumatology fellows, and other physicians who take care of patients with rheumatic diseases. The authors are rheumatologists. … This book focuses on an essential topic for every physician assessing and treating patients with rheumatological disease.” (Maryam Pourpaki, Doody’s Book Reviews, January, 2015)

From the Publisher