Testing Treatments: Better Research for Better Healthcare
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Product Description
Review
I genuinely, truly, cannot recommend this awesome book highly enough for its clarity, depth, and humanity.
--Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science
Excellent... This is a thought-provoking book and one I will keep nearby for many years. --Irene Mabbott, Nursing Standard
--Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science
Excellent... This is a thought-provoking book and one I will keep nearby for many years. --Irene Mabbott, Nursing Standard
Product Description
How do we know whether a particular treatment really works? How reliable is the evidence? And how do we ensure that research into medical treatments best meets the needs of patients? These are just a few of the questions addressed in a lively and informative way in Testing Treatments. Brimming with vivid examples, Testing Treatments will inspire both patients and professionals.
Building on the success of the first edition, Testing Treatments has now been extensively revised and updated. The second edition includes a thought-provoking chapter on screening, explaining why early diagnosis is not always better. Other new chapters explore how over-regulation of research can work against the best interests of patients, and how robust evidence from research can be drawn together to shape the practice of healthcare in ways that allow treatment decisions to be reached jointly by patients and clinicians.
Testing Treatments urges everyone to get involved in improving current research and future treatment, and outlines practical steps that patients and doctors can take together.
With a foreword by Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Testing Treatments asks the crucial question, how can we ensure that medical research effectively meets the needs of patients? It is a crucial question because all over the world, resources are wasted on poor quality research, research that only meets the needs of drug companies, and on unproven, disproven, or unnecessary treatment.
A useful complement to Ben Goldacre's Bad Science and Simon Singh's Trick or Treatment, Testing Treatments clearly lays out the principles of robust research, defining what makes a fair test, and explaining the importance of setting a study within the context of existing research. In itself, these principles do not sound particularly challenging, but the authors go on to show how the waters are muddied by vested interests, patient pester power, paternalistic clinicians, and inexcusable poor practice.
Finally, they set out a strong blueprint for a better future, asking for patients to be treated as equal partners, both as individuals requiring treatment, and as groups participating in research.
This is a readable work of great importance, with easily accessible language and interesting examples throughout the text.
A useful complement to Ben Goldacre's Bad Science and Simon Singh's Trick or Treatment, Testing Treatments clearly lays out the principles of robust research, defining what makes a fair test, and explaining the importance of setting a study within the context of existing research. In itself, these principles do not sound particularly challenging, but the authors go on to show how the waters are muddied by vested interests, patient pester power, paternalistic clinicians, and inexcusable poor practice.
Finally, they set out a strong blueprint for a better future, asking for patients to be treated as equal partners, both as individuals requiring treatment, and as groups participating in research.
This is a readable work of great importance, with easily accessible language and interesting examples throughout the text.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Medical research is one of those areas where everyone thinks they know a little. Images of lab rats, miraculous cures and money grabbing pharmaceutical companies compete with the day to day reality of patients and doctors trying to tackle illness. A new edition has been published of a book that tries to shed a bit of light on to the subject.
The book is aimed at the informed patient and explains how new medical treatments are researched, and how that relates to the experience of the patient being treated. The book strikes a tone that is halfway between academic text and pop science, and might seem intimidating to some, but the regular summaries of key points and personal stories mean that the reader will soon find themselves gripped.
The book takes a long view over history, covering scurvy treatments in 1747 right up to cancer trials of the present day, advocating a partnership approach between patient and doctor, and includes calls to action for professionals, patients and policy makers to ensure that questions are asked and information is shared. The reader is encouraged to look sceptically at the need for treatments and screening, and to try to see through marketing and media hype.
Ben Goldacre provided the forward to this edition, and the book continues in the spirit of his work - accessible without being over simplistic. I would have liked to have more detail, but I'm not sure how that could have been achieved without losing the ease of understanding. There is an extensive list of further reading and references at the back of the book for the reader who would like to know more, and I didn't personally feel that the scientific knowledge was shied away from in the text. Perhaps a scientist would disagree, but I went away feeling that I knew much more about the subject and that I would be a more informed patient.
The book is aimed at the informed patient and explains how new medical treatments are researched, and how that relates to the experience of the patient being treated. The book strikes a tone that is halfway between academic text and pop science, and might seem intimidating to some, but the regular summaries of key points and personal stories mean that the reader will soon find themselves gripped.
The book takes a long view over history, covering scurvy treatments in 1747 right up to cancer trials of the present day, advocating a partnership approach between patient and doctor, and includes calls to action for professionals, patients and policy makers to ensure that questions are asked and information is shared. The reader is encouraged to look sceptically at the need for treatments and screening, and to try to see through marketing and media hype.
Ben Goldacre provided the forward to this edition, and the book continues in the spirit of his work - accessible without being over simplistic. I would have liked to have more detail, but I'm not sure how that could have been achieved without losing the ease of understanding. There is an extensive list of further reading and references at the back of the book for the reader who would like to know more, and I didn't personally feel that the scientific knowledge was shied away from in the text. Perhaps a scientist would disagree, but I went away feeling that I knew much more about the subject and that I would be a more informed patient.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This punchy and eminently readable book, by two doctors and a healthcare-research campaigner, takes a critical look at how treatments are assessed - and how so often the way they are evaluated falls short of the ideal.
The essence of good treatment evaluation boils down to the `fair test', the clinical trial that compares different treatments in a way that avoids bias, takes account of the play of chance and assesses all relevant, reliable evidence.
It might be supposed that clinical trials are based on well-constructed research protocols and done with due safeguards for unbiased reporting, but that doesn't always happen. All too often it is a question of profit-driven rather than evidence-based evaluation - pharmaceutical companies want to put their results in the best possible light, because their profit depends on it. One ploy is to withhold negative results from publication, but even independent researchers may neglect to write up their reports if the results are disappointing. Astonishingly, at least half of all clinical trials are never fully reported, which makes the collection of all relevant material for an assessment a daunting task.
The authors want to draw patients into helping to make decisions about their own treatment, and to this end the book tells them how to judge whether claims for treatments are trustworthy. "Getting the right research done", the authors conclude, "is everybody's business".
The book is filled with examples of good, bad and unnecessary research; injudicious use of screening ("early diagnosis is not always better"); the proliferation of "me too" drugs (new, expensive medicines that offer no advantage over older, similar ones); and the misuse of statistics. It is also liberally sprinkled with apt and sometimes pithy quotations - from thoughts on certainty and opinion (from Charlie `Peanuts' Brown) to observations on the overdiagnosis of prostate cancer. And it is beautifully written.
The essence of good treatment evaluation boils down to the `fair test', the clinical trial that compares different treatments in a way that avoids bias, takes account of the play of chance and assesses all relevant, reliable evidence.
It might be supposed that clinical trials are based on well-constructed research protocols and done with due safeguards for unbiased reporting, but that doesn't always happen. All too often it is a question of profit-driven rather than evidence-based evaluation - pharmaceutical companies want to put their results in the best possible light, because their profit depends on it. One ploy is to withhold negative results from publication, but even independent researchers may neglect to write up their reports if the results are disappointing. Astonishingly, at least half of all clinical trials are never fully reported, which makes the collection of all relevant material for an assessment a daunting task.
The authors want to draw patients into helping to make decisions about their own treatment, and to this end the book tells them how to judge whether claims for treatments are trustworthy. "Getting the right research done", the authors conclude, "is everybody's business".
The book is filled with examples of good, bad and unnecessary research; injudicious use of screening ("early diagnosis is not always better"); the proliferation of "me too" drugs (new, expensive medicines that offer no advantage over older, similar ones); and the misuse of statistics. It is also liberally sprinkled with apt and sometimes pithy quotations - from thoughts on certainty and opinion (from Charlie `Peanuts' Brown) to observations on the overdiagnosis of prostate cancer. And it is beautifully written.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Useful Foundation
This is a well written book that cleverly combines evidence based practice and popular science. It explains things in a very simple way using examples and introduces the reader,... Read more
Published 12 days ago by Simon Nixon
do you have an opinion on medicine?
if you have an opinion on the state of healthcare today you owe it to yourself (and everyone you have debates with) to read this book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. Zoll
A thought provoking read
"Testing Treatments" is a great little read, easy to pick up and understand. This book raises the awareness about the need for fair tests of treatments so that better research can... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Milly Peach
Really interesting read.
A very accessible book that gives easy to grasp explanations of what can be quite complex research methods, although something is lost in the simplification of the descriptions. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Alyson
Urgent and focussed, a vital book in both senses of the word
Urgent and focussed... a vital book, in both senses of the word!
`Testing Treatments' is a broad-ranging work, important reading for patients, tax-payers, clinicians,... Read more
`Testing Treatments' is a broad-ranging work, important reading for patients, tax-payers, clinicians,... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jil
Testing treatments
Very easy to read and understand this book. Very important and potentially tedious concepts were covered in an interesting and well thought out manner. Read more
Published 4 months ago by ajnimmo
Fair Enough
Medical research has saved countless lives and made immense contributions to human welfare. But it could be done better and it could be done fairer. Read more
Published 5 months ago by F Henwood
absolute "must have"
physicians are flooded with informationas about better medicine, often promising best and modern care. Read more
Published 5 months ago by gjonitz
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