CSP 2017 Online Program

Practical Examples and Challenges of Statistical Consulting in Health Settings (303337)

Keywords: Effective communication with non-statisticians, Adapting to realistic constraints while maintaining statistical ethics, Examples and challenges of consulting within interdisciplinary teams

An overview of practical examples and common statistical roles found in public health and medical academic settings, and some of the expectations and challenges faced by statisticians in these settings, will be the focus of this presentation. Communication with non-statisticians will be emphasized, rather than specific statistical methods implemented in practice. This overview will include the importance of: (1) breadth of knowledge and working within interdisciplinary health research teams; (2) flexibility with study design given realistic constraints while maintaining statistical ethics; (3) translating public health and medical problems into meaningful statistical questions and analyses; (4) adaptability by statisticians to varying levels of project involvement; (5) study design and consulting with public health and medical professionals during the grant writing stage; (6) appropriate data collection and processing, with examples of challenges in meta-analyses and systematic reviews; and (7) communication of statistical results to non-statisticians and the relevance of communication skills in building effective interdisciplinary collaborations.