Testing Treatments Better Research for Better Healthcare: Imogen Evans, Hazel Thornton and Iain Chalmers

'I have had a preview of [Testing Treatments] and can report that it is an eloquent and impassioned plea for better, rather than more, research. It also calls for full admission of uncertainty about the effect of so much of what doctors do and recommend.'
Margaret McCartney, Financial Times

How well do we know whether a particular drug, therapy or operation really works, and how well? How reliable is the evidence? Are clinical trials truly unbiased? And is current research fully focused on the real needs of patients? For the first time, such timely and pressing questions are raised and resolved in this probing inquiry into modern clinical research, with far-reaching implications for daily medical practice and patient care. What emerges is the surprising truth that clinical research is neither as unbiased, nor as relevant, as patients have every right to expect, but that everyone - patients, doctors and researchers - can do much to change current practice and achieve better healthcare.

Expertly and thoroughly researched, the fast moving commentary spans the gamut of illness and therapy - from mastectomy to thalidomide - and explores a vast range of revealing case-studies, enlivened throughout by entertaining anecdotes and vivid eyewitness accounts drawn from the direct experience of patients, practitioners and researchers. As the evidence unfolds, it becomes glaringly obvious that some treatments have been at best inadequate, at worst harmful, and how many treatments continue to be inadequately tested. While outlining the goals of good research and how best to achieve unbiased results, including the use of randomised clinical trials, the authors highlight the inevitable uncertainties surrounding the effects of treatment, as well as the commercial and academic interests that invariably shape what research takes place.

Aimed at both patients and professionals, Testing Treatments builds a lively and thought provoking argument for better, more reliable and more relevant research with unbiased or 'fair' trials, and explains how patients can work with doctors to achieve this vital goal. Testing Treatments urges readers to take an active part in changing conditions and describes what practical steps doctors and patients can take together to improve current research and future treatments that best serve the interests of patients.

As the authors state "Issues concerning inadequate testing of treatments regularly capture the headlines - today it is herceptin; tomorrow something else will be in the spotlight. We hope our book will encourage wider understanding of how treatments can and should be tested fairly, and how patients and health professionals need to combine forces to ensure that this happens."

For further information, review copies or to arrange an interview with the authors, contact Victoria Main at the British Library Press Office: 020 7412 7112 or Victoria.Main@bl.uk

Notes for Editors

Testing Treatments: better research for better healthcare by Imogen Evans, Hazel Thornton and Iain Chalmers, is published in paperback by the British Library, 15 May 2006, price £12.95 (224 Pages, 234 X 156mm, ISBN 0 7123 4909 X). The book is available from the British Library Shop (tel: 020 7412 7735, fax: 020 7412 7624, email: bl-bookshop@bl.uk)

Imogen Evans practised and lectured in medicine in Canada and the UK before turning to medical journalism at The Lancet. From 1996 to 2005 she worked for the Medical Research Council, latterly in research ethics, and has represented the UK government on the Council of Europe Biomedical Ethics Committee.

Hazel Thornton, after undergoing routine mammography, was invited to join a clinical trial, but the inadequate patient information led to her refusal. However, it also encouraged her advocacy for public involvement in research to achieve outcomes relevant to patients. She has written and spoken extensively on this topic.

Iain Chalmers practised medicine in the UK and Palestine before becoming a health services researcher and directing the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit and then the UK Cochrane Centre. Since 2002 he has coordinated the James Lind Initiative, promoting better controlled trials for better healthcare, particularly through greater public involvement.