Basic Statistical Techniques for Medical and Other Professionals

We are bombarded with statistical data each and every day, and healthcare professionals are no exception. All sectors of healthcare rely on data provided by insurance companies, consultants, research firms, and government to help them make a host of decisions regarding the delivery of medical services. But while these health professionals rely on data, do they really make the best use of the information? Not if they fail to understand whether the assumptions behind the formulas generating the numbers make sense. Not if they don’t understand that the world of healthcare is flooded with inaccurate, misleading, and even dangerous statistics. The purpose of this book is to provide members of medical and other professions, including scientists and engineers, with a basic understanding of statistics and probability together with an explanation and worked examples of the techniques. It does not seek to confuse the reader with in-depth mathematics but provides basic methods for interpreting data and making inferences. The worked examples are medically based, but the principles apply to the analysis of any numerical data.

Dr. David J. Smith is the Proprietor of Technis Consultancy and has over forty years of experience in reliability and risk assessment and training courses. He is a self-starter who as a leading consultant, and previously as a senior manager in a number of large organizations, has been proactive in the areas of reliability and risk engineering and software quality in both onshore and offshore projects. He’s also a major contributor to national and international standards on functional safety-integrity.

An innovator with both management and technical skills in a range of industries who is well known for his contribution to the risk, reliability and quality profession. Author of 8 successful books and numerous papers. Two of his books are regarded as the standard works on the subject. A consultant in his field, for over 30 years, and creator of 6 reliability data and prediction software packages widely used in the profession. His main books are: Reliability, Maintainability and Risk, 9th Edition, Elsevier and The Safety Critical Systems Handbook, 4th edition, 2010, Elsevier.