Fred Tudiver, MD

James H Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, USA

Glasziou PP, Irwig L, Aronson JK (editors). Evidence-based medical monitoring: from principles to practice. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008.

I was drawn to this book right from the title. Imagine: an evidence-based text on monitoring (mostly) chronic disease for clinicians. I’ve imagined such a resource for many of my primary care practice years. Well, does this book deliver? Yes—perhaps depending on what you do. It is quite a scholarly book and would certainly appeal to academics and researchers in this field. But there’s information for clinicians as well, especially for those clinicians who are tired of second-guessing the management of their patients’ common chronic diseases because they often lack a proper evidence-based roadmap.

The authors’ introductory chapter’s definition of medical monitoring puts the readers on the same page: “…repeated testing aimed at guiding and adjusting the management of a chronic or recurrent condition.” They set out 8 general principles of medical monitoring that nicely run through the entire book …