Summary
Contents
Subject index
The `effectiveness revolution' both in research and clinical practice, has tested available methods for health services research to the extreme. How far can observational methods, routine data and qualitative methods be used in health care evaluation? What cost and outcome measures are appropriate, and how should data be gathered? With the support of over two million pounds from the British Health Technology Assessment Research Programme, the research project for this Handbook has led to both a synthesis of all of the existing knowledge in these areas and an agenda for future debate and research. The chapters and their authors have been selected through a careful process of peer review and provide a coher
Analytical Methods
Introduction
This section of the book considers developments in analytical methodology. Over the past 5–10 years, these have predominantly been concentrated in four separate, but linked areas: Bayesian methods; hierarchical modelling; quality of life research; and economic evaluation.
Bayesian methods, first advocated by the Reverend Thomas Bayes in the 1700s, and for much of the 20th century thought controversial by many statisticians, have developed rapidly in recent years. This development has been fuelled by computational advances and a realisation that such methods, now that they can be applied relatively easily, can make a major contribution in a number of key areas in health services, technology and policy research,1,2 for example monitoring and interpreting clinical trials and in meta-analysis. The key distinction between the ...
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