Clinical Practice Management for Speech-Language Pathologists (1999). By Becky Sutherland Cornett. Aspen Publishers, 200 Orchard Ridge Dr., Suite 200, Gaithersburg, MD 20878. 266 pages, $39. Reviewed by Jacqueline Hinckley, University of South Florida, Tampa.

This edited text includes nine chapters, all written by experts in their field, addressing timely professional issues in speech-language pathology. The first chapter by Bernard Henri and Brooke Hallowell is an excellent review of managed care with understandable definitions and discussion of implications for speech-language pathologists. Carol Frattali has contributed an overview on measuring outcomes. The third chapter provides definitions and description of guidelines for practice and highlights ASHA's resources in this area. Disorder-specific areas of professional practice and current issues are targeted in the next four chapters on dysphagia, traumatic brain injury, aging and dementia, and sociocultural and functional perspectives. The final two chapters "look into the crystal ball" of the future and provide the authors' views on how the changing health care environment will change practice patterns in health settings and the public schools.

The intended audience for this book is not explicitly stated; however, it would be useful for graduate student training in professional issues or for clinicians entering the health care system, either for their first time or returning to it from other endeavors. Each chapter has stated objectives and discussion questions, making it amenable to a class or journal club format.

Each chapter is well-organized, very readable, and clearly written. The editor has chosen experts in each of the chapter topic areas (Tracy Davidson, Nancy Swigert, Mark Ylvisaker, James Feeney, Timothy Feeney, Rosemary Lubinski, Shelley S. Chabon, Dorian Lee-Wilkerson, Noma B. Anderson, Alex Johnson, and Lissa Power-de Fur), making this text an authoritative review of the state of professional issues in speech-language pathology. The text might be less applicable to the public school setting, however the chapter on how health care practice is intersecting with public school practice points out the need for comprehension of these issues and discussion within that realm, as well.

Overall, the book is highly recommended as a review in professional issues in speech-language pathology