Statistical Methods in Medical Research

The explanation and implementation of statistical methods for the medical researcher or statistician remains an integral part of modern medical research. This book explains the use of experimental and analytical biostatistics systems. Its accessible style allows it to be used by the non-mathematician as a fundamental component of successful research.

Since the third edition, there have been many developments in statistical techniques. The fourth edition provides the medical statistician with an accessible guide to these techniques and to reflect the extent of their usage in medical research.

The new edition takes a much more comprehensive approach to its subject. There has been a radical reorganization of the text to improve the continuity and cohesion of the presentation and to extend the scope by covering many new ideas now being introduced into the analysis of medical research data. The authors have tried to maintain the modest level of mathematical exposition that characterized the earlier editions, essentially confining the mathematics to the statement of algebraic formulae rather than pursuing mathematical proofs.

Received the Highly Commended Certificate in the Public Health Category of the 2002 BMA Books Competition.

Peter Armitage has a Cambridge M.A. in mathematics and a London Ph.D, in Statistics. He was a Statistician for the Medical Research Council from 1947-61, and Professor of Medical Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine from 1961-76. He then moved to Oxford, first as Professor of Biomathematics, later as Professor of Applied Statistics and head of the new Department of Statistics, retiring in 1990. His research has centred around the development of methods for medical statistics, especially clinical trials. He is a Past President of the International Biometric Society, International Society for Clinical Biostatistics, and Royal Statistical Society, and edited Biometrics 1980-84. He was appointed C.B.E. in 1984.

Geoffrey Berry is an Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney School of Medicine.