Medical Statistics Made Easy (PDF)

All clinicians need to be able to critically appraise the evidence that underlies their actions. To be able to do this, they don't need to know how to do a statistical analysis. They do, however, need to know whether the right test has been used and how to interpret the results. Medical Statistics Made Easy addresses that need and explains in simple terms how to interpret the statistics that are used in medical scientific papers.

It is designed for all healthcare professionals and students who need a basic knowledge of when common statistical terms are used and what they mean. It does not assume that readers have any prior statistical knowledge. However basic their mathematical or statistical knowledge, they will find that everything is clearly explained.

The authors, one a medical statistician, the other a medical educator, grade each statistical concept by importance and ease of understanding. These gradings help readers pick out concepts that suit their level of understanding, or the most important concepts if they are short of time. The book therefore caters both for readers that are bewildered by medical statistics and for those that want to learn about more complex concepts.

The book has been designed to be popular with a broad range of healthcare professionals, whether for examination preparation or help with critically appraising papers:
· Doctors, both GPs and hospital doctors, who need to read papers for help with management or prescribing decisions;
· Nurses and allied health professionals (some of the practical examples given are specifically tailored to these groups);
· Postgraduate students - the book has already proved to be particularly popular with GP Registrars in preparation for the MRCGP examination;
· Medical and other healthcare students.

Each section has easy-to-follow examples of the concepts in use as well as an explanation of common pitfalls and also highlights "exam tips" for those who may be asked about statistics in under- or post-graduate examinations. Readers can test their understanding of what they have learnt by working through extracts from original papers in the "statistics at work" section. There is a comprehensive glossary with brief explanations of more than one hundred statistical terms.