How to Report Statistics in Medicine

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS RELEASES 2ND EDITION OF 'HOW TO REPORT STATISTICS IN MEDICINE' 

"How To Report Statistics in Medicine," second edition, was published at the end of August 2006 by the American College of Physicians (ACP), the nation's largest medical-specialty society. The second edition revises and expands a popular text that has become a standard guide in the fields of medical writing, scientific publications, and evidence-based medicine.
 
This book has been selected for "The First Clinical Research Bookshelf" (firstclinical.com) as 'Essential reading for clinical research professionals' 2006.  
 
Co-authored again by renowned medical editor and scientific writing instructor Thomas A. Lang, MA, www.tomlangcommunications.com and biostatistician and statistical consultant Michelle Secic, MS, "How To Report Statistics in Medicine," second edition, is not a text on analyzing or calculating statistics but rather a guide to interpreting and reporting them. It was written for authors, editors, and reviewers who prepare or evaluate biomedical research for publication, especially in peer-reviewed journals.
 
Since the publication of the first edition of "How To Report Statistics in Medicine," Lang and Secic say most, but not all, statistical reporting guidelines have remained unchanged. The need for a second edition comes from an increased understanding of how best to explain these guidelines, as well as the need to add several new topics and to update a few topics that have changed substantially since the first edition.
 
"How To Report Statistics in Medicine," second edition, contains elements of a style manual, a dictionary, and an encyclopedia. By providing plain-English overviews of the various topics, a glossary of easy-to-understand explanations of statistical terms and tests, and a user-friendly index, the authors say it should also be a valuable adjunct to anyone learning biostatistics and medical research in traditional academic classes.
 
The new edition features thoroughly revised, expanded text; new tables and figures showing how to display data; specific, detailed guidelines for reporting and interpreting statistics and research designs; sample presentations; and fresh coverage of emerging topics in statistics and trial design.
 
The co-authors write in the book's introduction that "The success of the first edition was gratifying and confirmed our belief that readers will use reporting guidelines if they have access to them and if they can understand them. When they use these guidelines, they will become better producers and consumers of biomedical research and thus better able to practice evidence-based medicine."
 
Edward J. Huth, MD, MACP, editor emeritus of Annals of Internal Medicine, writes of Lang and Secic's contributions in the book's foreword: "Authors, editors, and peer reviewers of papers containing statistics-based evidence remain in their debt. Most important is the benefit that will eventually reach our patients, who are the reason why our profession exists."
 
"How To Report Statistics in Medicine," second edition, list price is $54.95.  The softcover book has 490 pages.

How To Report Statistics in Medicine has been reprinted and distributed in China since 1998, and actually translated into Chinese and published in 2002.

How To Report Statistics in Medicine, won the Honorable Mention Award in the Allied Health Category in the American Medical Writers Association's 1998 Medical Book Awards Competition

Nadine W. Martin, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concluded the following in the Journal of the American Statistical Association (March 1998): "Lang and Secic do a masterly job of taking a subject that intimidates many people and sweetening it so that it is palatable. This book should be on every medical writer's desk (and many authors would benefit from it too) to be read from cover to cover and used as a reference. I also recommend that it be used as a text for journalism students and science writers, or by anyone who does not plan to become a statistician yet needs to be able to interpret and report statistics."

Please contact Secic Statistical Consulting, Inc. for information on ordering How To Report Statistics in Medicine: consult@secicstats.com