Concise Guide to Medical Research

Introduction

This book is a concise, beginner's introduction to medical research written for biomedical researchers, medical students, young faculty and clinicians who would like a readable guide to the research process, in particular the medical and biomedical research process.

Challenges in Medical Research

In medical research, where treatments for illness and disease are developed for the human population, a variety of genetic backgrounds, diets and lifestyles often limit the ability of researchers to control extraneous sources of variation and clearly observe treatment effects. Probability based statistical models are often used to control for these secondary variables after the experiment has ended.

Content Overview

The chapters of this book provide guidance in many aspects in the process of doing medical research. From defining a useful idea and developing a proof-of-concept pilot study, to formally testing a new treatment, this book provides an overview of how to develop and carry out a basic research project, analyze and report the data. Throughout, the importance of planning, support structure and research ethics is emphasized and several basic examples are used to motivate the discussion.

Key Features

Easy to read with examples

Easy to understand

Provides a simple outline that can be followed in many practical settings

Provides a simple guide to basic statistics useful in medicine

Provides a pathway into medical research