Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface; 1. A brief history of medicine and statistics; 2. What is evidence based?; 3. Causation; 4. The medical literature: an overview; 5. Searching the medical literature; 6. Study design and strength of evidence; 7. Instruments and measurements: precision and validity; 8. Sources of bias; 9. Review of basic statistics; 10. Hypothesis testing; 11. Type I errors and number needed to treat; 12. Negative studies and type II errors; 13. Risk assessment; 14. Multivariate analysis; 15. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs); 16. Scientific integrity and the responsible conduct of research; 17. Applicability and strength of evidence; 18. An overview of decision making in medicine; 19. Sources of error in the clinical encounter; 20. The use of diagnostic tests; 21. Utility and characteristics of diagnostic tests: likelihood ratios, sensitivity and specificity; 22. Bayes' theorem, predictive values, post test probabilities and interval likelihood ratios; 23. Comparing tests and using ROC curves; 24. Incremental gain and the threshold approach to diagnostic testing; 25. Sources of bias and critical appraisal of studies of diagnostic tests; 26. Screening tests; 27. Practice guidelines and clinical prediction rules; 28. Decision analysis; 29. Cost effective analysis; 30. Outcome analysis; 31. Meta-analysis; Appendix 1. Common medical journals; Appendix 2. Glossary; Appendix 3. Bibliography; Appendix 4. Levels of evidence and grades of recommendations; Appendix 5. Overview of critical appraisal; Appendix 6. Common statistical tests; Appendix 7. Useful Web sites; Appendix 8. Formulae; Appendix 9. Proof of Bayes' Theorem; Appendix 10. Balance sheet approach to calculating threshold values; Index