Evidence-Based Diagnosis

1. Introduction: understanding diagnosis and diagnostic testing; 2. Reliability and measurement error; 3. Dichotomous tests; 4. Multilevel and continuous tests; 5. Critical appraisal of studies of diagnostic tests; 6. Screening tests; 7. Prognostic tests and studies; 8. Multiple tests and multivariable decision rules; 9. Quantifying treatment effects using randomized trials; 10. Alternatives to randomized trials for estimating treatment effects; 11. Understanding P-values and confidence intervals; 12. Challenges for evidence-based diagnosis.

Thomas B. Newman, currently Chief of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, previously served as Associate Director of the UCSF/Stanford Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at UCSF. He is a co-author of Designing Clinical Research and a currently practicing pediatrician. Michael A. Kohn is Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, where he teaches clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. He is also an emergency physician with more than 20 years of clinical experience, currently practising at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame, California.

'This excellent new textbook thoroughly explains all aspects of a reasoned approach to diagnostic decision making ... Evidence-Based Diagnosis should now become the definitive text for this corner of the evidence-based medicine library. It teaches the skills necessary to adopt a thoroughly reasoned diagnostic approach, and although aimed at academicians, it is written so that it can and should be used by a broader audience of trainees and clinicians.' Michael J. Steiner, Academic Pediatrics 'This is a book on diagnostic testing aimed at an audience of clinicians, with those of an academic interest in focus, but it should also be of great value for anyone with an interest of practical applications of evidence-based medicine ... The book has an appealing pedagogical touch and shows that the authors have a long experience as teachers ... For those with basic knowledge of statistics, this is an excellent follow-up and in-depth continuation into applications on diagnostic tests and treatment effect analysis.' Lennart Bodin, European Journal of Public Health 'The amazing part is that the authors explain complex concepts with minimal math, to avoid frustrating the novice clinician ... For those with a basic level of knowledge, this is an excellent resource to enhance and expand your understanding of diagnostic testing and its applications in trials.' Abhinav Chandra, Academic Emergency Medicine