According to Karl Pearson, British mathematician and arguably the father of modern statistics, statistics is the grammar of science. The idea for Improving Numeracy in Medicine evolved from dozens of conversations at the 2015 National Health Statistics conference, BMJ Medical Investigative Journalism conference, and other conferences including the Lown, National Physician Alliance, and Preventing Overdiagnosis. The central thesis in many of these conversations: data. Experts described how data is used to mislead, misinform, or sensationalize research findings or industry objectives. A cardiology resident told me, "We don't get much numeracy in our medical education." I decided to create a tool that might ameliorate the confusion. We don't need another statistics or biostatistics book. I can recommend dozens. My aim is to provide an accessible guide for the statistics books already on our shelves, a companion book we can use to illuminate the imperfect world of prediction and analyses. Highlights from recent peer-reviewed manuscripts anchor discussions of the most common elements of descriptive and inferential statistics. What is a hazard ratio? How do you determine effect size? Number needed to treat? Number needed to harm? Number needed to screen? If clinical literature is truly the foundation of evidence-based medicine, why is it written for statisticians? Journalists as well as scientists face many challenges in reporting medical research findings. Knowing what questions to ask when you review clinical data will help to improve the quality of your healthcare coverage. What is the finding? What does the finding mean? Could the finding be wrong? My goal with this book is to ask questions. I want to create a conversation. Because this topic is timely, I opted for the immediacy of self-publication. Let's get the conversation started--one datum at a time.
About the Author: Bonny is a writer, entrepreneur, public speaker, data enthusiast, and age-group triathlete. She has worked in industry as an HIV content writer, CRF designer, and medical education expert--academia as a clinical editor, bench scientist, and writer--and medicine as a clinical editor, grant writer, medical education executive, content writer, and strategist. She is the author of "Medical Writing for Smart People: Because Dummies Shouldn't Write About Medicine", 5 Sources for the RIght Healthcare Data: Bigger isn't Always Better, and a collaborative writer on publications in medicine, health policy, and health economics. Because of the popularity of her blog, Alzheimer's Disease: The Brand, she is a sought after speaker on Healthy Brain Aging, the economics of Alzheimer's Disease, how to determine value in medical outcomes, and the role of storytelling in medicine.