"This is the genealogy of Honorable William G. Bassler and his sister, Susan Bassler Pickford" -- p. 5.

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.

Margot Fonteyn's closest friends don't appear in Daneman's detailed biography. Lita Legarda (a doctor) gets a one line mention. Angie Novello (Margot's Washington Hostess), Theodora Christon (Margot's personal secretary) and Ken Ludden aren't mentioned at all. These were the people she trusted most, who kept her confidences and never spoke to the press. Everyone knew Margot differently. BQ, her mother, knew one Margot. Tito, her husband, knew another. Ludden, her circle's youngest by a large margin, knew yet another side of Margot: hence the title 'My Margot'. Ken shares that Margot--who taught him so much about ballet and life, and with whom he worked to plan ballet's future. Beyond Margot we learn about Ken's delightful relationship with BQ, a close friendship between a teenager and a woman of eighty. Ken also writes with unflinching honesty of the hostile relationship he had with Rudolf Nureyev, which developed over time into a grudging mutual respect and a shared grief when Margot died.

When Richard Halliburton graduated from college, he chose adventure over a career, traveling the world with almost no money. The Royal Road to Romance chronicles what happened as a result, from a breakthrough Matterhorn ascent to being jailed for taking forbidden pictures on Gibraltar. Halliburton's literary career developed out of his meticulous logging of events that occurred on his own adventures. This book, his first, an account of his travels in 1921-23, was a best-seller for three years and was translated into 15 languages.

Healthcare providers, consumers, researchers and policy makers are inundated with unmanageable amounts of information, including evidence from healthcare research. It has become impossible for all to have the time and resources to find, appraise and interpret this evidence and incorporate it into healthcare decisions. Cochrane Reviews respond to this challenge by identifying, appraising and synthesizing research-based evidence and presenting it in a standardized format, published in The Cochrane Library (www.thecochranelibrary.com). The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions contains methodological guidance for the preparation and maintenance of Cochrane intervention reviews. Written in a clear and accessible format, it is the essential manual for all those preparing, maintaining and reading Cochrane reviews. Many of the principles and methods described here are appropriate for systematic reviews applied to other types of research and to systematic reviews of interventions undertaken by others. It is hoped therefore that this book will be invaluable to all those who want to understand the role of systematic reviews, critically appraise published reviews or perform reviews themselves.