Clinic Health in Maryland

Clinical Audit in Mental Health Towards a Multidisciplinary Approach John Riordan Central Psychology Service, Thorpe Combe Hospital, Walthamstow, UK and Darren Mockler Neuropsychology Department, King’ s College Hospital, London, UK Clinical audit is central to current health care reforms. Although the concept of audit is now well accepted, the key challenge is its implementation in different specialities. In the field of mental health care a highly collaborative, team-based approach is essential, and audit practice must take into account the activities of the full range of multidisciplinary professional groups in hospital and community settings. The content of this book reflects the growing need to extend the principles of medical audit to encompass clinical audit in order to meet the demands of purchasers, providers, clinicians, carers and patients. An evaluation of key areas of care such as delivery, timeliness and outcome, with an emphasis on quality, is provided. The approach to clinical audit, here, is essentially practical and case-oriented and this book will appeal to a wide audience including psychiatric services managers, consultant psychiatrists, social services care managers and community care teams, and quality assurance professionals.

The Bayesian approach involves synthesising data and judgement in order to reach conclusions about unknown quantities and make predictions. Bayesian methods have become increasingly popular in recent years, notably in medical research, and although there are a number of books on Bayesian analysis, few cover clinical trials and biostatistical applications in any detail. "Bayesian Approaches to Clinical Trials and Health-Care Evaluation provides a valuable overview of this rapidly evolving field, including basic Bayesian ideas, prior distributions, clinical trials, observational studies, evidence synthesis and cost-effectiveness analysis. Covers a broad array of essential topics, building from the basics to more advanced techniques.Illustrated throughout by detailed case studies and worked examples.Includes exercises in all chapters.Accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of statistics.Authors are at the forefront of research into Bayesian methods in medical research.Accompanied by a Web site featuring data sets and worked examples using Excel and WinBUGS - the most widely used Bayesian modelling package. "Bayesian Approaches to Clinical Trials and Health-Care Evaluation is suitable for students and researchers in medical statistics, statisticians in the pharmaceutical industry, and anyone involved in conducting clinical trials and assessment of health-care technology.