American Statistical Association Announces Upcoming Webinars for Statisticians in Biopharmaceutical Industry

Alexandria, VA (PRWEB) April 9, 2008 -- The American Statistical Association's Section on Teaching Statistics in the Health Sciences is launching a webinar series, the first of which will be offered on April 17, 2008. Entitled "The Increasing Sophistication of Statistics in the New England Journal of Medicine (or what your physician should know about statistics, but perhaps doesn't)," the program presenter will be Nicholas J. Horton, Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts) and Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland (New Zealand).

The statistical training required prior to entry into and that provided during medical school is minimal, and today's increasing sophistication complicates the interpretation and dissemination of new results, particularly for clinicians who have not received additional training in the conduct of research. A recent survey of original articles published in The New England Journal of Medicine revealed increasing use of statistical methods over time. Of 311 articles published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2004-2005, a substantial fraction of articles utilized relatively sophisticated statistical methodologies such as survival analysis (61 percent), multiple regression (51 percent) or power calculations (39 percent). Only 13 percent of articles used just simple descriptive statistics (e.g. percentages, means, confidence intervals). Knowledge of material typically included in an introductory statistics course increased this percentage to only 21 percent.

The webinar, which is scheduled for 4-5 p.m. Eastern time, will discuss the implications of the increased use of sophisticated statistical methods for medical and statistical education. Cost is $40 for ASA members ($20 for TSH Section members) and $50 for non-members. Registration is available online until April 16 at https://amstat.emeetingsonline.com/emeetings/websitev2.asp?mmnno=203&pagename=ATTENDEE

A second webinar, "Statistics 105 --- Real-Life Statistics: Your Chance for Happiness (or Misery)," will be held on Tuesday, April 29, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Information is available at http://www.amstat.org/sections/tshs/webinar.cfm.

About the American Statistical Association

The American Statistical Association (ASA), a scientific and educational society founded in Boston in 1839, is the second oldest continuously operating professional society in the United States. For more than 160 years, ASA has been providing its 18,000 members serving in academia, government, and industry and the public with up-to-date, useful information about statistics. The ASA has a proud tradition of service to statisticians, quantitative scientists, and users of statistics across a wealth of academic areas and applications. For additional information about the American Statistical Association, please visit the association's web site at http://www.amstat.org or call 703.684.1221.

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