Healthy scholarship: ‘Half the medical literature suffers from statistical flaws’

Significance of statistical accuracy in research highlighted.

LAHORE:

“Almost 50 per cent of medical literature published today in medical journals around the world has statistical flaws, ultimately misleading people,” Prof John Biggs, the former Cambridge University postgraduate medical education dean said on Tuesday.

Prof Biggs was visiting the University of Health Sciences (UHS), where he gave a lecture during a seminar on Biological Data Analysis with Hands-on Training in Statistical Software.

The four-day seminar has been arranged by the Higher Education Commission. It was attended by medical researchers, doctors and students.

Dr Biggs said reliance on statistics during diagnosis might lead to wastage of resources and incorrect conclusions.

He told the audience about statistical errors in major researches.

Forty per cent of the articles in the Psychiatry Journal had errors, he said.

He said that the statistics were crucial. “They can affect judgment whether an individual will live or die, health will be protected or jeopardised, and whether the medical science will advance or get sidetracked.”

Dr Biggs regretted that many researches were conducted by doctors who were not adequately trained in research.

Prof Malik H Mubbashar, the UHS vice chancellor, urged associating statisticians early in research projects lest the later stages of the studies were affected.

Waqas Sami, a biostatician at UHS, told The Express Tribune that the major issue in medical research in Pakistan was the lack of external audit. “Currently, there are 69 medical journals being published in Pakistan. None of them have ever been audited for statistical flaws,” he said.

Sami said that the editorial boards that assessed medical studies and articles for publication should check the statistics for authenticity.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2011.