What books/sources are recommended for learning about the intricacies of medical testing i.e. randomized trials, double-blinding, p-values…etc? I understand the basic concept/methodology, but am looking for the history & also the philosophy that justifies these methods as reliable instruments.
The topics you mention should be discussed in any text on “biostatistics and epidemiology” – note the “and”. Pure epidemiology texts are likely to focus on disease transmission, investigation, and topics outside your interest; pure biostatistics texts may focus more on the math, and having extablished that outlook, may make the principles less accessible – the mathematical approach, and sample problems are actually more useful to a full understanding, but I doubt you’d want to plow through them.
I wish I could recommend some specific texts, but though I’ve read quite a few over the years, none stands out. I am ashamed to say that most physicians start off [after medical school] knowing less about the subject than they are led to believe, and quickly forget most of that. Almost any PhD biomedical researcher or MPH has a stronger grasp of the subject than the great majority of physicians. (Almost no medical school has the mandatory “journal club” course that is fundamental to most PhD programs, to teach them to analyze, deconstruct and validate scientific papers or conclusions.)
Actually, now that I think about it, the easiest thorough treatments I’ve seen have probably been pitch at “Schools of Public Health” (e.g. MPH programs) Despite having a name that sounds as boring as hygiene, it’s really a fascinating field
It sounds like you’re also looking for “the other side” of the issue [i.e. the chinks in the shining armor of science]. I don’t think you’ll find them in the methods [you’ll understand why when you’ve read the texts, which concern themselves in depth with “things that will fool you, and how to avoid them”] – but their application, and risk assessment in general, at least in the US, can be a comedy of errors. There has been a movement steadily taking root in our medical schools over the past 15 years called “evidence based medicine” – the fact that we need such a revolution tells you how authority-, tradition- or “anecdotal experience”- based medicine still is.
I recently stumbled across my copy of “Science without Sense” by Steven Milloy [disclaimer: I knew him professionally at one time–though not well] Since I read it about 10 years ago, I don’t recall it well enough to heap praise on it, but it is a very short, entertaining read; inexpensive ($1-2 retail), humorous, acerbic and sensible. You might google that title and author to find other works by him and his co-author, or similar books and articles on the subject [On the web, a bibliography is effectively a self-index of related topics. It’s a shame that we put them at the end of an article, not the beginning, where they’d be weighed more heavily by the search engines. I’m sure Google is working on that]
I don’t oppose or disdain double-blind clinical studies and the rest of epidemiology and biostatistics. Heck I practically worship them. I guess I just find myself playing “the Loyal Opposition” to the CDC and other agencies more often that I’d ever have guessed when I was an idealistic youth. And don’t even get me started on the pharmaceutical companies!