The Encyclopaedic Companion to Medical Statistics - Softcover

Medical statistics is increasingly important in many areas of medicine and the growing rise of evidence-based medicine will make it still more so. It has critical applications in clinical trials, genetic research, epidemiology and in the design and analysis of medical experiments and surveys. Statistical analyses are now widely reported in published papers and no researcher or practitioner in the health sciences can afford to ignore this crucial subject. The Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Medical Statistics is a straightforward and comprehensive reference source that will be an invaluable guide for those with no formal statistical background and a handy reference for those who do know some statistics. With coverage ranging from simple definitions and basic tests to the latest techiques used at the cutting edge of medical research, this book will be invaluable to anyone working in this field.

In recent years the central importance of appropriate statistical methodology has been increasingly recognised in research studies in medicine and also in day-to-day clinical practice.

Medical literature is now liberally punctuated not only with relatively routine statistical terms such as 'p-value', 't-test' and 'confidence interval', but also with more esoteric items such as 'hazard function, 'multilevel model' and 'generalised estimating equations'. Consequently, researchers in medicine and clinicians who are not primarily Statisticians need to have a source that provides readable accounts of these terms so that they can better understand Statistical aspects of both the design and analysis of a reported investigation.

The Encyclopaedic Companion to Medical Statistics aims to be that source, containing readable accounts of almost 400 statistical topics central to current medical research. Each entry has been written by an individual chose for both their expertise in the field and their ability to communicate Statistical concepts successfully to medical researchers. real examples from the biomedical literature and relevant illustrations feature in many entries, and extensive cross-referencing signposts the reader to related entries.

"If this magnificent encyclopaedia can be deployed in the ongoing argument about the future of twenty-first century academic medicine, then not only the research enterprise but also the public's health and well-being will be far stronger tomorrow than it is today." - Richard Horton, Editor, The Lancet