CLINICAL UTILITY RESEARCH - AN INTRODUCTION

Clinical utility research is concerned with how one develops knowledge that can be directly used for improving clinical practice. Some have referred to this domain as ''effectiveness'' research. but clinical ut ility implies much more than clinical effectiveness. It also addresses issues of access, transferability, sample specificity. and the unique ness of each human condition. This special series of papers describe s everal research programs that have been conducted in applied settings and that illustrate research on clinical utility. These descriptions a re modestly representative of the wide applicability of research metho ds that address the uniqueness of each setting and population and the nature of findings that can be used to guide clinical practice. The pa pers bridge cultures. countries, settings, and problems. They illustra te some of the advantages of, and some of the knowledge to be gained f rom conducting controlled research in settings that are devoted to cli nical service. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.