Help me understand the intricacies of medical testing

December 20, 2004 6:49 AM

What books/sources are recommended for learning about the intricacies of medical testing i.e. randomized trials, double-blinding, p-values..etc? I understand the basic concept/methodology, but am looking for the history & also the philosophy that justifies these methods as reliable instruments.
posted by Gyan to health & fitness (8 comments total)

Sounds like you want a history of both statistics and research methods -- the concepts you listed don't just apply to medical testing. Some intro level texts and maybe some of Karl Popper's work?
posted by trey at 8:01 AM on December 20, 2004

Are you looking for work on design of experiments (DOE)? I think Ronald Fisher was the first to do work on experimental design (in the 20s and 30s), so that might be a place to go if you want to start from the beginning.

"Statistics for Experimenters" by Box, Hunter is one of the classic texts in DOE and it includes some of the philosophy/theory.
posted by milkrate at 9:05 AM on December 20, 2004

It sounds to me like you want a book on "research methods" and not on statistics (i.e., the book will have statistics in it, but only in the context of research certainty / bias / etc.).

I don't know of a good book on this -- but there are many graduate-level / advanced-undergrad-level books out there for use in reseach methods classes. Mine was terrible, but I'm sure you might find one.

On preview: milkrate's idea is a good one. I didn't even know that DOE was a field in which one could write books.
posted by zpousman at 9:18 AM on December 20, 2004

A good introduction to research methods will enable you to read journal articles with an understanding of the equations that show the analysis done by the authors, as well as give you a solid enough grounding in experimental design to understand the methods used and how the data can be applied and interpreted in the context of the type of design and the limitations therein.

That said, what specifically are you hoping to be able to do? Do you want to read drug info? Journal articles? Just be informed? There's a lot to learn, but you can target it if you have a specific goal in mind.
posted by spaghetti at 10:15 AM on December 20, 2004

spaghetti: There's a lot to learn, but you can target it if you have a specific goal in mind

Mostly interpreting drug info, and also studies in neuroscience.
posted by Gyan at 10:40 AM on December 20, 2004

Well, a good grounding in research methods is your best place to start as all clinical trials make use of fairly standardized methods. From there I would look into psychobiology and psychopharmacology if you are interested in the psych aspect of all of this. Even if you want to go broader, this will give you a good start.

If you want to know about drugs and the body in general, you should have a solid knowledge of human biology first and go from there. You will find there is a ridiculous amount of info on drugs in general and it may be overwhelming to try to learn enough about all of them to satisfy you.

In terms of locating books, I recommend looking at undergraduate course descriptions from universities you respect and finding out what they are using as their textbooks.
posted by spaghetti at 10:58 AM on December 20, 2004

I'm just finishing a master's degree in this stuff. Altman's Practical Statistics for Medical Research was superb. There's not so much history - a bit about Fisher - but the philosophy is carefully explained; definitely the best of the textbooks I've used thus far.

On the other hand it's rather mathematical - it's a textbook designed for people who want to learn how to do this stuff, and it's not exactly clear if that's what you're looking for.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:12 PM on December 20, 2004

Just testing to see if "My Comments" catches new comments in old threads.
posted by Gyan at 1:15 AM on December 19, 2005