Statistical Questions in Evidence-based Medicine is a book of questions and answers about the statistical principles and methods used in medical research. Based entirely on material published in the medical literature and popular media, it will prove invaluable to medical students, doctors,...

We present a Hotelling model of price and advertising competition between prescription drugs that differ in quality/side effects. Advertising results in the endogenous formation of two consumer groups: brand loyal and non-brand loyal ones. We show that advertising strategies are strategic...

Objectives The mini-clinical evaluation exercise (mini-CEX) is widely used in the UK to assess clinical competence, but there is little evidence regarding its implementation in the undergraduate setting. This study aimed to estimate the validity and reliability of the undergraduate mini-CEX and...

Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) have become a commonly used instrument in health economics. This paper updates a review of published papers between 1990 and 2000 for the years 2001–2008. Based on this previous review, and a number of other key review papers, focus is given to three issues:...

Background: The HIV epidemic has caused a dramatic increase in tuberculosis (TB) in East and southern Africa. Several strategies have the potential to reduce the burden of TB in high HIV prevalence settings, and cost and cost-effectiveness analyses can help to prioritize them when budget...

The provision of hospital resources, such as beds, operating theatres and nurses, is a matter of considerable public and political concern and has been the subject of widespread debate. The political element of healthcare emphasises the need for objective methods and tools to inform the debate...

BACKGROUND: Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is a significant public health problem, representing a major burden in terms of morbidity to the individual and health-service utilization. While clinical guidelines suggest good practice for the short-term hospital management of DSH, there remains...

OBJECTIVE: Several systematic reviews have suggested that greater nurse staffing as well as a greater proportion of registered nurses in the health workforce is associated with better patient outcomes. Others have found that nurses can substitute for doctors safely and effectively in a variety...

Summary We conducted a case–control study to examine osteonecrosis (ON) incidence, patient characteristics, and selected potential risk factors using two health record databases in the UK. Statistically significant risk factors for ON included systemic corticosteroid use, hospitalization,...

Auditory Evoked potentials are often evaluated subjectively (by visual inspection) and considerabledifferences between interpretations can occur. Objective, automated methods are normally based oncalculating one or more parameters from the data, but only some of these techniques can provide...