A former Medicare/Medicaid administrator notes in prefatory remarks that "if this 'objective evaluation' stuff was easy, it would have happened long ago." In 1989, Dr. Brown (U. of Pennsylvania School of Medicine), director of the Center for Value-Based Medicine, had unsuccessfully lobbied the federal government for setting up healthcare practice guidelines. Hoping that recent Medicare reform will lead to further system reforms, and arguing that providers need to understand health economics, the authors overview concepts in linking evidence-based medicine with cost- utility analysis and quality-of-life measures (examples of which are given). Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)