Book excerpt: Here is a book for clinicians, clinical investigators, trainees, and graduates who wish to develop their proficiency in the planning, execution, and interpretation of clinical and epidemiological research. Emphasis is placed on the design and analysis of research studies involving human subjects where the primary interest concerns principles of analytic (cause-and- effect) inference. The topic is presented from the standpoint of the clinician and assumes no previous knowledge of epidemiology, research design or statistics. Extensive use is made of illustrative examples from a variety of clinical specialties and subspecialties. The book is divided into three parts. Part I deals with epidemiological research design and analytic inference, including such issues as measurement, rates, analytic bias, and the main forms of observational and experimental epidemiological studies. Part II presents the principles and applications of biostatistics, with emphasis on statistical inference. Part III comprises four chapters covering such topics as diagnostic tests, decision analysis, survival (life-table) analysis, and causality.