Practical Statistics for Medical Research

Most medical researchers, whether clinical or non-clinical, receive some background in statistics as undergraduates. However, it is most often brief, a long time ago, and largely forgotten by the time it is needed. Furthermore, many introductory texts fall short of adequately explaining the underlying concepts of statistics, and often are divorced from the reality of conducting and assessing medical research. Practical Statistics for Medical Research is a problem-based text for medical researchers, medical students, and others in the medical arena who need to use statistics but have no specialized mathematics background.

Explores topics of particular importance in clinical practice, including diagnostic tests, method comparison, and observer agreement

Utilizes real data throughout and includes dozens of interesting data sets

Discusses the use and misuse of statistics, enabling readers to judge the appropriateness of methods and interpretations published in medical journals

Describes the main statistical methods for comparing data collected from different groups of individuals or for relating different observations from the same people

Provides many problems, all with detailed solutions

The author draws on twenty years of experience as a consulting medical statistician to provide clear explanations to key statistical concepts, with a firm emphasis on practical aspects of designing and analyzing medical research. The text gives special attention to the presentation and interpretation of results and the many real problems that arise in medical research.

Douglas G. Altman