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Health care personnel are often placed in the uncomfortable position of being thoroughly knowledgeable about a journal article's content but confused about the statistical techniques used. Sometimes the reader is even unsure as to whether the author's conclusion can be drawn from the data shown: "What are these eponymous techniques, and are they completely unimpeachable?" The time-honored solution of busy professionals is to purchase an appropriate book. A good choice is the second edition ofMedical Uses of Statistics, a collection of articles reviewing statistics from a practical point of view. The book has 23 chapters in five sections covering broad concepts of statistics, experimental design, techniques of data analysis, guidelines for communicating research results, and reviews and meta-studies. Eighteen of the 23 chapters have been published previously, 14 inThe New England Journal of Medicine. Some readers might be reluctant to buy a book when 78% of it (18/23)
Mark L. Mitchell (Wed,) studied this question.