Main description:

This textbook consists of ten chapters, and is a must-read to all medical and health professionals, who already have basic knowledge of how to analyze their clinical data, but still, wonder, after having done so, why procedures were performed the way they were. The book is also a must-read to those who tend to submerge in the flood of novel statistical methodologies, as communicated in current clinical reports, and scientific meetings.

In the past few years, the HOW-SO of current statistical tests has been made much more simple than it was in the past, thanks to the abundance of statistical software programs of an excellent quality. However, the WHY-SO may have been somewhat under-emphasized. For example, why do statistical tests constantly use unfamiliar terms, like probability distributions, hypothesis testing, randomness, normality, scientific rigor, and why are Gaussian curves so hard, and do they make non-mathematicians getting lost all the time? The book will cover the WHY-SOs.

Contents:

Chapter 1

Randomness

Basis of All Scientific Methods

Chapter 2

Randomized and Observational Research

Writing Protocols, Making Study Data Files

Chapter 3

Randomized Clinical Trials, Designs

Questionable Use of Placebos and Lack of Placebos, Stepped Wedge and Adaptive Designs

Chapter 4

Randomized Clinical Trials, Analysis Sets, Statistical Analysis, Reporting Issues

Principal Features of Statistical Analyses, the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias-Tool

Chapter 5

Discrete Data Analysis, Failure Time Data Analysis

Better Assessments of Biological and Pharmaceutical Agents

Chapter 6

Quantitative Data Analysis

Modeling for False Positive Findings, Using Median Absolute Deviations

Chapter 7

Subgroup Analysis

European Medicines Agency's and American Food Drug Administration's Directives

Chapter 8

Interim Analysis

Alpha Spending Function Approach

Chapter 9

Multiplicity Analysis

Gate Keeping Strategies and Closure Principles

Chapter 10

Medical Statistics, a Discipline at the Interface of Biology and Mathematics

Equating Subjective Feelings with Probabilities, and Providing Quality Criteria for Diagnostic Tests