By Winnie Dunn, PhD, OTR, FAOTA
Slack Books, 2008, 348 pp. $44.95

This book is both a text book and a workbook designed to help new and practicing therapists incorporate evidence into everyday treatment interventions. For those who do not enjoy workbooks, using this one could be a challenging endeavor. You will need a copy of Law and MacDermid's Evidence-Based Rehabilitation (2008), Portney and Watkins' Foundations of Clinical Research: Application to Practice (2000) and Gary Kielhofner's Research in Occupational Therapy: Methods of Inquiry for Enhancing Practice (2006). In addition to these books, you will have to obtain copies of research articles (both cited works and some of your own choosing) to complete suggested exercises.

The book is divided into three sections. Topics in the first section include familiar research concepts, outdated information, handling anomalous data and a review of the basic sections of research articles. In section two, the therapist is taught to summarize articles, and compare and contrast findings while attending to various research methods and designs. The next step is to construct "take home messages" that can be shared with colleagues. Section three focuses on gathering data in everyday practice and the responsibility to verify the effect of treatment.

The book is further broken down into chapters, each with the same format: There is an introduction of a concept followed by directions to review specific articles, some of which are located in the Appendix. The reader is then directed to review this information with "study partners." Well developed worksheets are included for this purpose.

Overall, this is a valuable text and could be especially useful for a course in research methods and design. However, its usefulness in professional practice is limited. The readings and exercises are extremely time-consuming. While it would be wonderful to be able to meet with colleagues to discuss current literature, most of us do not have that luxury. Perhaps a follow-up text could be written to provide suggestions for getting started in a hectic, managed care environment.

This book can be obtained from Slack Incorporated, 6900 Grove Road, Thorofare, NJ 08086; 856-848-1000; www.slackbooks.com.

Reviewer Denise Thatcher, MS, OTR/L, is a senior therapist in the General Psychiatry department at St. Joseph Medical Center.