Evidence-based medicine and clinical epidemiology

As the body of scientific literature grows exponentially, the ability to interpret and apply the results of clinical research becomes increasingly important to the practice of medicine. This chapter presents the basics of epidemiologic study designs and the statistical terminology used to present the results of these clinical studies. We also discuss newer methods of evaluating combined data from different studies and newer methods of approaching important clinical questions, such as pragmatic trials and health services research. The emphasis of the chapter is on providing clinicians with guidelines to better interpret and use the vast amount of information available to them.