In the daytime, she looked at the breathless and unsightly scene. The love she had said before had been reduced to a joke, and he had appeared just in time. "Woman, be my imperial concubine." She had despicably become his concubine and his plaything. He seemed to pamper her to the bones, but he never allowed her to conceive his child. Later on, she found out that a woman who lost her heart was the most foolish, while a man who lost his heart was the most heartless ...

In the daytime, she looked at the breathless and unsightly scene. The love she had said before had been reduced to a joke, and he had appeared just in time. "Woman, be my imperial concubine." She had despicably become his concubine and his plaything. He seemed to pamper her to the bones, but he never allowed her to conceive his child. Later on, she found out that a woman who lost her heart was the most foolish, while a man who lost his heart was the most heartless ...

Healthcare decision makers in search of reliable information that compares health interventions increasingly turn to systematic reviews for the best summary of the evidence. Systematic reviews identify, select, assess, and synthesize the findings of similar but separate studies, and can help clarify what is known and not known about the potential benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and other healthcare services. Systematic reviews can be helpful for clinicians who want to integrate research findings into their daily practices, for patients to make well-informed choices about their own care, for professional medical societies and other organizations that develop clinical practice guidelines. Too often systematic reviews are of uncertain or poor quality. There are no universally accepted standards for developing systematic reviews leading to variability in how conflicts of interest and biases are handled, how evidence is appraised, and the overall scientific rigor of the process. In Finding What Works in Health Care the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends 21 standards for developing high-quality systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research. The standards address the entire systematic review process from the initial steps of formulating the topic and building the review team to producing a detailed final report that synthesizes what the evidence shows and where knowledge gaps remain. Finding What Works in Health Care also proposes a framework for improving the quality of the science underpinning systematic reviews. This book will serve as a vital resource for both sponsors and producers of systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research.

Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295749013 At first glance, medicine and poison might seem to be opposites. But in China’s formative era of pharmacy (200–800 CE), poisons were strategically employed as healing agents to cure everything from abdominal pain to epidemic disease. Healing with Poisons explores the ways physicians, religious figures, court officials, and laypersons used toxic substances to both relieve acute illnesses and enhance life. It illustrates how the Chinese concept of du—a word carrying a core meaning of “potency”—led practitioners to devise a variety of methods to transform dangerous poisons into effective medicines. Recounting scandals and controversies involving poisons from the Era of Division to the Tang, historian Yan Liu considers how the concept of du was central to how the people of medieval China perceived both their bodies and the body politic. He also examines the wide range of toxic minerals, plants, and animal products used in classical Chinese pharmacy, including everything from the herb aconite to the popular recreational drug Five-Stone Powder. By recovering alternative modes of understanding wellness and the body’s interaction with foreign substances, this study cautions against arbitrary classifications and exemplifies the importance of paying attention to the technical, political, and cultural conditions in which substances become truly meaningful. Healing with Poisons is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of the University of Buffalo.

The “essential” companion to the landmark Users' Guides to the Medical Literature - completely revised and updated! 5 STAR DOODY'S REVIEW! "This second edition is even better than the original. Information is easier to find and the additional resources that will be available at www.JAMAevidence.com will provide readers with a one-stop source for evidence-based medicine."--Doody's Review Service Evidence-based medicine involves the careful interpretation of medical studies and its clinical application. And no resource helps you do it better-and faster-than Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: Essentials of Evidence-Based Clinical Practice. This streamlined reference distills the most clinically-relevant coverage from the parent Users' Guide Manual into one highly-focused, portable resource. Praised for its clear explanations of detailed statistical and mathematical principles, The Essentials concisely covers all the basic concepts of evidence-based medicine--everything you need to deliver optimal patient care. It's a perfect at-a-glance source for busy clinicians and students, helping you distinguish between solid medical evidence and poor medical evidence, tailor evidence-based medicine for each patient, and much more. Now in its second edition, this carry-along quick reference is more clinically relevant--and more essential--than ever! FEATURES Completely revised and updated with all new coverage of the basic issues in evidence-based medicine in patient care Abundant real-world examples drawn from the medical literature are woven throughout, and include important related principles and pitfalls in using clinical research in patient care decisions Edited by over 60 internationally recognized editors and contributors from around the globe Also look for JAMAevidence.com, a new interactive database for the best practice of evidence based medicine.