Random Reflections on Health Services A. L. Cochrane £17.95,  978-1-85315-394-5,  120pp,  Paperback,  March 1999

Biosocieties, 2007, Professor Richard Ashcroft
This book, based on A. L. Cochrane's lectures of 1972, is surely one of the most celebrated books published in modern medicine, and remains vitally interesting more than 30 years after it was first published.

This book has an Introduction by Chris Silagy, Professor of Public Health, Monash University and Director, Monash Institute of Public Health and Health Services Research, Melbourne, Australia, and a Foreword by Iain Chalmers, Director, UK Cochrane Centre, Oxford, UK

Here is the original textbook on "evidence-based medicine", a term with which few doctors and other healthcare professionals can fail to be familiar at the turn of the millenium.

Originally published in 1972, Archie Cochrane's classic text has had a profound influence on the practice of medicine and on the evaluation of medical interventions. He was the first to set out clearly the vital importance of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in assessing the effectiveness of treatments, and his work led directly to the setting-up of the Cochrane Collaboration, now a world-wide endeavour dedicated to tracking down, evaluating and synthesising RCTs in all areas of medicine.

The message contained in this book is as relevant to clinicians, healthcare managers and policy-makers now as it was in the 1970s. In addition, this new paperback edition of Cochrane's work contains a brand new introduction by Professor Chris Silagy, who was the first elected Chair of the international Cochrane Collaboration, and a Foreword by Dr Iain Chalmers, Director of the UK Cochrane Centre, the first such centre to be established. Professor Silagy looks at the post-Cochrane agenda, in particular the growth and empowerment of consumers taking more responsibility for their own healthcare decisions, and the influence of consumers on the development of an evidence-based approach to their healthcare.

Archie Cochrane's book is essential reading for all clinicians, managers and researchers interested in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare interventions and systems.

Contents:
Foreword; Introduction by Chris Silagy; Acknowledgements; Foreword; Introduction; Historical sketch; The National Health Service; Evaluation of evidence; Effectiveness and efficiency; Illustrative examples; A preliminary evaluation; Equality in the health services; Conclusions; Summary; Postcript; References; Some reflections; Obituary.

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