Contents
A user’s guide
Alejandro R Jadad
AcknowledgementsAlejandro (Alex) R. Jadad
Dundas, 11 June 1998
I would like to express my gratitude to all those, now anonymous, who asked me most of the questions that provided the structure of this book.
I would also like to thank a group of special people who have contributed significantly to my education as a clinician, researcher and teacher over the past ten years. During my training in Colombia, Mario Ruiz exerted great influence on my research life, introduced me to the joy of clinical research and taught me the indelible meaning of the word mentor. German Parra showed me, for the first time, how research evidence can be integrated into clinical decisions, and Pedro Bejarano encouraged me, selflessly, to develop my research career abroad.
In England, Henry McQuay showed me the power of RCTs in health care and provided me with unprecedented conditions to nurture my curiosity and to speed up the development of my research skills. Iain Chalmers introduced me to systematic reviews and exemplified the meaning of collaboration. Chris Glynn showed me that busy clinicians can be researchers, provide humane patient care and have a rich personal life beyond medicine. His continuous challenges encouraged me to see the limitations of research evidence to guide health care decisions and motivated many of my efforts to overcome them. Clive Hahn encouraged me to write this book and Mary Banks, Senior Commissioning Editor at BMJ Books made sure that it happened.
This book would have been much different without the influence of many of my colleagues at McMaster University. Some of them deserve special mention. I owe a lot to George Browman, who created the opportunity for me to come to Canada, expanded my research horizons, helped me to recognise the value of the research process and other types of information, and gave me unconditional support to develop my own agenda. I would also like to thank Brian Haynes, for reinforcing my notion of mentorship, and for helping me understand the need to integrate research evidence with the values, preferences and circumstances of the decision-makers. Geoff Norman introduced me to the principles of cognitive and social psychology, opened my eyes to the limitations of human inference, encouraged me to focus the book on users of research, and challenged me continuously to recognise the barriers to the practice of evidence based decision-making created by our human nature.
For advice on matters academic or personal, I have turned repeatedly to Murray and Eleanor Enkin, my favourite couple. My family and I feel immensely privileged to call them friends. We owe them a great deal for the warmth with which they have welcomed us into their lives, for their wisdom, and for the kind but always-candid advice. Murray read each of the chapters of this book, and gave me invaluable advice on both content and structure. Each contact with Murray and Eleanor, regardless of whether it centres around academic, family or cultural issues, is always a rich learning experience.
I would also like to express my gratitude to those who gave their time to me generously to help put this book together. Tracy Hillier, Geoff Norman and Iain Chalmers provided very constructive comments on the initial outline of the book.
Susan Marks read, patiently, each of the chapters of the book, always giving me friendly and highly professional suggestions to improve their readability and structure. Judi Padunsky proofread most of the chapters, supported my communication with the publishers and organised the references for the entire book. Laurie Kendry and Mary Gauld read several chapters of the book and provided valuable input. Comments by Brian Haynes and Geoff Norman contributed enormously to the last chapter.
I owe more to my family than to anyone else. My extended family in South America showed me, from a very early age, the meaning of teamwork, unconditional support and trust. I could not have possibly written this book without Martha, my wife and best friend. Once more, her love, support and constructive criticism have helped me maintain a busy academic life and be part of a happy family. Finally, I would like to give special thanks to my daughters Alia and Tamen, for giving a new meaning to all I do.
To my family
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© BMJ Books 1998. BMJ Books is an imprint of the BMJ Publishing Group. First published in 1998 by BMJ Books, BMA House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JR. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-7279-1208-9