Book excerpt: An accessible and practical approach to the design and analysis of experiments in the health sciences Design and Analysis of Experiments in the Health Sciences provides a balanced presentation of design and analysis issues relating to data in the health sciences and emphasizes new research areas, the crucial topic of clinical trials, and state-of-the- art applications. Advancing the idea that design drives analysis and analysis reveals the design, the book clearly explains how to apply design and analysis principles in animal, human, and laboratory experiments while illustrating topics with applications and examples from randomized clinical trials and the modern topic of microarrays. The authors outline the following five types of designs that form the basis of most experimental structures: Completely randomized designs Randomized block designs Factorial designs Multilevel experiments Repeated measures designs A related website features a wealth of data sets that are used throughout the book, allowing readers to work hands-on with the material. In addition, an extensive bibliography outlines additional resources for further study of the presented topics. Requiring only a basic background in statistics, Design and Analysis of Experiments in the Health Sciences is an excellent book for introductory courses on experimental design and analysis at the graduate level. The book also serves as a valuable resource for researchers in medicine, dentistry, nursing, epidemiology, statistical genetics, and public health.