Tell me more ×
Cross Validated is a question and answer site for statisticians, data analysts, data miners and data visualization experts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 5 down vote favorite
5

I have a friend who is an MD and wants to refresh his Statistics. So is there any recommended resource online (or offline) ? He did stats ~20 years ago.

share|improve this question
1  
What's the significance of the fact that your friend is an MD? – Shane Jul 20 '10 at 6:25
I think the significance of the MD is the person in question is a busy clinician, and not a researcher. Therefore we are being guided towards your less weighty tomes as source recommendations. Well, that's from the MD's I come across anyway. – Chris Beeley Jul 20 '10 at 6:42
Exactly! The fact that he is an MD poses a few restriction on (a) the volume of the introductory material (b) on what to assume about the "starting point" and (c) on the time willing to spend to reintroduce himself with basic stuff. – adamo Jul 20 '10 at 7:48
2  
Is he looking to perform statistical analyses, interpret the output or critique published papers that use statistical methods? – Graham Cookson Jul 21 '10 at 17:23
1  
@Shane The friend being an MD has a fair amount of significance to it - the answers should likely be oriented, for example, more towards statistics used in clinical practice, study design, etc. A reading list involving new and exciting variance estimators for obscure model types...less useful ;) – EpiGrad Feb 1 '12 at 22:57

3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

This is one I've used successfully:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Statistics-without-Psychology-Christine-Dancey/dp/013124941X

I just stumlbed on this too, this might be useful:

http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~mb55/pubs/pbstnote.htm

I'm sure I knew of a free pdf that some doctors I know use, but I can't seem to find it at the moment. I will try to dig it out.

share|improve this answer
1  
I've read the link and "Statistics without psychology", I was like: Wut? Then I opened the book: "Statistics Without Maths for Psychology" – Gustavo Bandeira Jul 4 '12 at 23:52
1  
Lol. Although I fear a "Psychology without statistics" book would be a bestseller... – Chris Beeley Jul 9 '12 at 21:26
up vote 2 down vote

My book, Intuitive Biostatistics, is written partly from a medical point of view. It focusses on the practical parts of interpreting statistical results, with almost no math.

share|improve this answer
I work in medical/epidemiological research, and I see this book on colleagues' shelves all the time. Still haven't read it myself, but I can attest to its popularity. – Matt Parker Jul 26 '10 at 21:35
up vote 1 down vote

I assume your friend prefers something that's biostatistics oriented. Glantz's Primer of Biostatistics is a small book, an easy and quick read, and tends to get rave reviews from a similar audience. If an online reference works, I like Gerard Dallal's Handbook of Statitical Practice, which may do the trick if he's just refreshing previous knowledge.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.