Clinical Prediction Models: A Practical Approach to Development, Validation, and Updating, Hardcover

Prediction models are important in various fields, including medicine, physics, meteorology, and finance. Prediction models will become more relevant in the medical field with the increase in knowledge on potential predictors of outcome, e.g. from genetics. Also, the number of applications will increase, e.g. with targeted early detection of disease, and individualized approaches to diagnostic testing and treatment. The current era of evidence-based medicine asks for an individualized approach to medical decision-making. Evidence-based medicine has a central place for meta-analysis to summarize results from randomized controlled trials; similarly prediction models may summarize the effects of predictors to provide individu- ized predictions of a diagnostic or prognostic outcome. Why Read This Book? My motivation for working on this book stems primarily from the fact that the development and applications of prediction models are often suboptimal in medical publications. With this book I hope to contribute to better understanding of relevant issues and give practical advice on better modelling strategies than are nowadays widely used. Issues include: (a) Better predictive modelling is sometimes easily possible; e.g. a large data set with high quality data is available, but all continuous predictors are dich- omized, which is known to have several disadvantages.

Ewout Steyerberg worked for 25 years at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam before moving to Leiden where he is now Professor of Clinical Biostatistics and Medical Decision Making and chair of the Department of Biomedical Data Sciences at Leiden University Medical Center. His research has covered a broad range of methodological and medical topics, which is reflected in hundreds of peer-reviewed methodological and applied publications. His methodological expertise is in the design and analysis of randomized controlled trials, cost-effectiveness analysis, and decision analysis. His methodological research focuses on the development, validation and updating of prediction models, as reflected in a textbook (Springer, 2009). His medical fields of application include oncology, cardiovascular disease, internal medicine, pediatrics, infectious diseases, neurology, surgery and traumatic brain injury.