Working from their own experience, the authors write for researchers at a variety of career stages who have questions about diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, prevention, causes of health care problems, health status and quality of life, and the effects of innovations in health services. They concentrate on key issues and practical solutions and consider the realities that percolate behind any effort at research in a real-life setting as they cover forming research questions, gathering data through such methods as systematic reviews and therapeutic trials, testing and evaluating, assessing claims of causation, measuring quality of life, collecting data online, preparing a research protocol, analyzing data, preparing reports for publication, and dealing with the media. They provide a searchable CD-ROM version for this edition. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)