Statistics at a glance

Abstract

still remember my first book on statistics: “Elementary statistics with applications in medicine and the biological sciences” by Frederick E. Croxton¹. For me, it has been the start of pursuing understanding statistics in daily life and in medical practice. It was the first volume in a long row of books.

In his introduction, Croxton pretends that “nearly everyone involved in any aspect of medicine needs to have some knowledge of statistics”. The reality is that for many clinicians, statistics are limited to a “P < 0.05 = ok”. I do not blame my colleagues who omit the paragraph on statistical methods. They have never had the opportunity to learn concise and clear descriptions of the key features. I have experienced how some authors can describe difficult methods in a well understandable language. Others fail completely.

As a teacher, I tell my students that life is impossible without a basic knowledge of statistics. This feeling has resulted in an annual seminar of 90 minutes. This tutorial is the summary of this seminar. It is a summary and a transcription of the best pages I have detected.