Systematic Reviews in Health Care: A Practical Guide

The past two decades have seen increasing interest and developments in methods for doing high quality systematic reviews. This volume provides a clear introduction to the concepts of systematic reviews, and lucidly describes the difficulties and traps to avoid. A unique feature of the manual is its description of the different methods needed for different types of health care questions: frequency of disease, prognosis, diagnosis, risk, and management. This book also provides illustrative examples and exercises for each of the sections.

What do we do if different studies appear to give different answers? When applying research to questions for individual patients or for health policy, one of the challenges is interpreting such apparently conflicting research. This practical guide to systematic reviews clearly describes and explains the methods to systematically identify relevant research, appraise its quality, and synthesize the results. As well as illustrative examples, there are exercises for each of the sections. This is essential reading for those interested in synthesizing health care research. Pronunciation Plus helps intermediate-level students of North American English improve their pronunciation through a variety of stimulating listening and speaking tasks. Many of these tasks are done with a partner, giving students the opportunity to interact with their classmates while practicing their pronunciation. The book contains sixty 2-3 page units. Together they address all of the important elements of spoken English: individual speech sounds, stress and rhythm, sounds in connected speech, intonation, and pronouncing written words.