Evidence in Medicine

High-quality evidence is the foundation for effective treatment in medicine. As the vast amount of published medical evidence continues to grow, concerns about the quality of many studies are increasing.Evidence in Medicineis a much-needed resource that addresses the'medical misinformation mess'by assessing the flaws intheresearchenvironment. This authoritativetextidentifies andsummarisesthe many factors that have produced the current problems in medical research,including bias inrandomisedcontrolled trials, questionable research practices, falsified data, manipulated findings, and more. This volumebrings togetherthe findings from meta-research studiesand systematic reviewstoexplorethe quality ofclinical trialsand other medical research,explainingthe character and consequences of poor-quality medical evidenceusing clear language anda wealth of supporting references.The textsuggestsplanning strategies to transform the research processandprovides an extensive list of the actions that could be takenby researchers, regulators, and otherkey stakeholdersto address defects in medical evidence. This timely volume: Enables readers to select reliable studies andrecognisemisleading research Highlights themain types of biased and wasted studies Discusses how incentives in the research environment influence the quality of evidence Identifies the problemsresearchers need to guard against in their work Describesthe scale of poor-quality researchandexploreswhy the problems are widespread Includes a summary of key findings on poor-quality research and a listing of proposed initiatives to improve research evidence Contains extensive citations to references, reviews, commentaries, andlandmark studies Evidence in Medicineis required reading for allresearchers who create evidence, funders and publishers of medical research, studentswho conduct their own research studies, and healthcare practitioners wanting to deliver high-quality, evidence-based care.