Book Review: Epstein, I. (2009). Clinical data mining: Integrating practice and research. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ever since the Flexner Report of 1915, social work has struggled to assert itself as a science-based profession, a struggle that underlies much of the debate between practice-based research and research-based practice (Cha, Kuo, & Marsh, 2006; Gambrill, 2002). It also informs much of the conversation around evidenced-based practice and random controlled trials (RCT) versus other social work practice and methodological approaches (Ginexi & Hilton, 2006; Green & Glasgow, 2006). Irwin Epstein’s latest work, Clinical Data Mining: Integrating Practice and Research, not only continues this important discourse, it does so unapologetically, from the point of view of the social work practitioner