Handbook Of Veterinary Clinical Research

The first accessible information on how to carry out veterinary clinical research. This book is an aid to increasing the quantity and quality of such research within veterinary clinical practice. Covering all the core research methods as well as aspects specific to veterinary medicine. Clinical research aims to optimize decision making in practice by answering questions on the best diagnostic options and treatments. Reading this book will help you take the intellectually rewarding step towards improving prognoses and outcomes through informed decisions. Special attention is given to ethical and legal issues, how to maximise the power of studies when faced with small numbers of patients, and how to go about research with few obvious resources to hand.

Dr Mark Holmes is a senior lecturer in preventive veterinary medicine, Chairman of the Farm Animal Epidemiology and Informatics Unit, and director of the Outreach Program of the Cambridge Infectious Diseases Consortium, at the University of Cambridge.
Dr Peter Cockcroft is Programme Director of Cambridge Expert Vets, an independent veterinary education, training and support business. He was previously a senior lecturer in farm animal medicine at the University of Cambridge for 11 years.

1. Introduction.

2. Establishing the Hypothesis.

3. Subjects Selection Criteria and Recruitment.

4. Variables.

5. Introducing Statistics.

6. Estimating the Sample Size.

7. Observational Studies: Cohort Studies.

8. Cross-Sectional and Case-Control Studies.

9. Clinical Randomized Controlled Trials.

10. Studies on Diagnostic Tests.

11. Designing Questionnaires.

12. Study Implementation.

13. Data Management.

14. Writing a Research Protocol.

15. Writing and Reviewing Scientific Papers.

16. Ethical and Legal Considerations.

17. Systematic Reviews, Meta Analysis, Critically Appraised Topics, Decision Analysis, Case Series and Case Reports