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This book provides insights into how to be a productive clinical researcher via real-life case examples of successful clinical research -- and also clinical research gone awry. Through these examples of success and failure, the book develops a blueprint for building a career in clinical research.

Future medical practice depends on the quality of the clinical trials to which drugs, devices, and treatment procedures are subjected today. However, clinical trials are not easy to do, and many physicians and health care providers who attempt clinical research struggle in this endeavor, primarily because of lack of instruction. Clinical Research aims to fill the gap between training and research through case studies of a long-time clinical researcher´s rich and varied experiences.

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Dedication.- Preface.- Acknowledgements.- Table of Contents.- Basic Premise.- Case 1. A "good" question.- Case 2. A "bad" question.- Case 3. Why were 116 patients excluded?.- Case 4. Sometimes a good question evolves from a bad one.- Case 5. What went wrong?.- Case 6. Check your facts.- Case 7. All is not lost.- Case 8. An important lesson.- Case 9. A lucky escape.- Case 10. A letter or a full paper.- Case 11. This could be serious. Be prepared.- Case 12. Not correct procedure.- Case 13. A lesson well learned.- Case 14. Taking out a patent. Should you or should you not?.- Case 15. Taking out a patent. Watch out.- Case 16. A laboratory lesson.- Case 17. Before you start any research.- Case 18. An offer of employment. What to look for.- Case 19. What should you do?.- Case 20. Who to trust.- Case 21. Elementary.- Case 22. Never give up.- Case 23. How long should a study go on?.- Case 24. What to do.- Case 25. To what journal should you send your work?.- Case 26. A drug sponsored trial.- Case 27. The difference between research and quality assurance/improvement.- Case 28. Stopping a clinical study.- Case 29. Controversy.- Case 30. The P Value.- Case 31. How many authors?.- Case 32. If you injure your patient.- Case 33. Multicenter trials.- Case 34. Unprofessional behavior.- Case 35. Tips on how to get the Institutional Review Board (IRB) submission completed and passed.- Case 36. How to perform and report the result of a survey.- Case 37. Validity of the cricoid pressure (Sellick´s maneuver.- Case 38. Another unprofessional behavior.- Case 39. A data set.- Case 40. Taking over an ongoing clinical trial.- Case 41. Should you do a pilot study in this proposed trial?.- Case 42. An inconclusive result (negative result). What to do.- Case 43. Retrospective studies. What to watch out for.- Case 44. Plagiarism.- Case 45. Pediatric research.- Case 46. Your paper is rejected. What to do.- Case 47. You disagree with a conclusion of a published article.- Case 48. Is this a good study?.- Case 49. Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.- Case 50. Is the title of a paper or grant important?.- Case 51. Sampling and subjects.- Case 52. What not to do if you are a mentor.- Case 53. Be aware.- Case 54. A statistical impasse.- Case 55. A bad outcome.- Case 56. A case report.- Case 57. Are case reports becoming extinct.- Case 58. A clinical pharmacology study.- Case 59. Watch out.- Case 60. A new equipment.- Case 61. Those that ignore the past.- Case 62. What are the safety data for this formulation?.- Case 63. This is a test to see what you have learned.- Review of the clinical research process. From the beginning to the end.- The future of clinical research.- Summary of Pearls.

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John G. Brock-Utne, MD, PhD, FFA(SA)
Professor
Department of Anesthesia
Stanford University
Stanford, CA, USA

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