Customer Reviews

Design and Analysis of Clinical Trials: Concepts and Methodologies (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics)

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I own several books on clinical trials and this one is my favorite. It is biblical in its treatment of the topic and always seems to contain what my other books don't.

There are a few strengths that are particularly worth pointing out:

1) Makes many references to regulatory guidelines.

2) Excellent coverage of the various trial designs.

3) Good sample size chapter.

4) Several chapters on how to practically implement a trial.

Other options include:

-Piantodosi (Clinical Trials: methodologic perspective): my second favorite, not as comprehensive as Chow and Liu

-Freidman and DeMets (Fundamentals of Clinical Trials): a bit too superficial but very well written

-Pocock (Clinical trials: practical approach): a bit dated and superficial

I selected this text for a new doctoral level course on clinical trials based mostly on the topics covered. When we started using it, I found many errors in logical thinking. So far, one of the worst is a view that randomization satisfies some statistical assumption. It does not. Its function is to make groups similar, on the average. It is not in any way a substitute for random sampling. Separating these two random processes is basic to understanding clinical trials. I am embarrassed that I had my students purchase this book.