Statistics in medicine
-
Statistics in medicine · Jul 2009
Do doctors need statistics? Doctors' use of and attitudes to probability and statistics.
There is little published evidence on what doctors do in their work that requires probability and statistics, yet the General Medical Council (GMC) requires new doctors to have these skills. This study investigated doctors' use of and attitudes to probability and statistics with a view to informing undergraduate teaching. An email questionnaire was sent to 473 clinicians with an affiliation to the University of East Anglia's Medical School. ⋯ Sixty-three per cent (78/124, 95 per cent CI 54 per cent, 71 per cent) said that there were activities that they could do better or start doing if they had an improved understanding of these areas and 74 of these participants elaborated on this. Themes highlighted by participants included: being better able to critically evaluate other people's research; becoming more research-active, having a better understanding of risk; and being better able to explain things to, or teach, other people. Our results can be used to inform how probability and statistics should be taught to medical undergraduates and should encourage today's medical students of the subjects' relevance to their future careers.