Medical Statistics Made Easy: Amazon.co.uk: Michael Harris, Gordon Taylor: Books

Review

This book is not (and does not claim to be) a textbook to teach you how to carry out medical statistics. However, as a lightweight, friendly introduction to the subject area it surpasses anything else I have seen. --2009 BMA Medical Book Competition Programme and Award Winners, September 2009<br /><br />'...we would recommend this book as an introduction into medical statistics before plunging into the deep 'statistical' waters! It gives confidence to the reader in taking up the challenge of understanding statistics and [being] able to apply knowledge in analysing medical literature.' --Scottish Medical Journal

I don't own a copy of the original edition of this book; in fact I've not even seen a copy so I am unable to comment on how much better or worse this edition is in comparison. What I can comment on, however, is how utterly grief-stricken I am having realised half-way through life that such a book exists! It verges on being the Holy Grail for Idiots! If ever there was a book that completely lived up to its title, this is it. The first three pages are devoted to explaining how to even use the book (not many things are made that easy), and the next couple explain the design of the book. I almost feel that I should merely compile a list of excellent features this book exhibits but space would clearly not allow so I'll concentrate on a select, but by no means exhaustive few. There are eight sections divided into a total of 24 chapters (unfortunately none of these are numbered a minor drawback), each of which tackles a particular aspect of statistics or statistical test. The first chapter, for example, looks at percentages and this is then followed by chapters on Mean, Mode and Median and so the book goes on, passing through p values, t tests, regression, odds ratio, survival analysis, etc, etc. Everything is covered. Perhaps above everything, it is the chapter layout and design that makes this book stand out head and shoulders above the crowd. At the beginning of each chapter two questions are posed how important is the subject in question and how difficult is it to understand. The first is answered on the basis of how often the subject is mentioned / used in papers published in mainstream medical journals. A star rating is then given from one to five with five stars implying use in the majority of papers published. The second question is answered by means of a thumbs up grading system. The more thumbs, the easier the concept is to understand (maximum of five). This, of course, provides a route into statistics for even the most idle of uneducated individuals! Five stars and five thumbs must surely indicate time-efficient learning! Chapters then continue to follow a uniform format with short paragraphs explaining what each particular aspect means and when it is used. Common pitfalls are also explained and highlighted boxed examples are given in each case. At the end of each chapter exam tips (light bulb icon!) are given I doubt anyone could ask for more! The whole way in which the authors have written this book is commendable; the chapters are succinct,easy to follow and a pleasure to read. Even the total lack of colour doesn t seem to detract from the excellence of this book, it really is brilliant and the glossary at the back of the book must surely be capable of ensuring a couple of extra marks in the FRCS (Urol) written paper. Is it value for money a definite yes even at twice the price. Of course I never exaggerate but if you breathe, you should own this book! --Ian Pearce, Urology News, June 2010

Product Description

Medical Statistics Made Easy 2nd edition continues to provide medical students and professionals with the easiest possible explanations of the key statistical techniques used throughout the medical literature. Each technique is graded for ease of use and frequency of appearance in the mainstream medical journals. Medical Statistics Made Easy 2nd edition is essential reading for anyone looking to understand: *confidence intervals and probability values *numbers needed to treat *t tests and other parametric tests *survival analysis. If you need to understand the medical literature, then you need to read this book. From the Publisher: You may also be interested in our MRCGP texts: Applied Knowledge Test for the new MRCGP (ISBN 9781904842545); New Clinical Genetics (ISBN 9781904842316); Puzzles for Medical Students (ISBN 9781904842348); Critical Reading Questions Workbook (ISBN 9780955366116); MEQ Workbook (ISBN 9780955366123); MRCGP Orals Summary Cards (ISBN 9780955366147); VIVA Topics Workbook (ISBN 9780955366130); CSA Summary Cards (ISBN 9780955366154).

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

medical statistics made easy. Harris and Taylor 3 Feb 2010

By Dr. Alexander Mclean

Format:Paperback

I am a gp and hyperbaric physician. I have a large bookshelf of medical statistics monographs. I have understood very little of them in spite of many hours trying.Harris and Taylor make medical stats comprehensible enough for you to fool examiners and colleagues that you know what you are talking about. Worse still and as a warning, this book will fire you into reading further and even understanding large lumps of other books on this subject.Other authors-please copy their format and clarity.
Dr John McLean.

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

If Carlsberg wrote books on statistics... 23 July 2008

By Ann Addison

Just about the only book on statistics that I've ever been able to understand. Not designed to teach you how to do statistics but how to tell what other people's statistics actually mean. Contains really helpful explanations of the importance and meaning of most common (and many uncommon) statistical concepts that clinicians are likely to encounter in the medical literature. I'm not competent to judge the accuracy, but for sheer comprehensibility it easily surpasses anything else on the shelves in our health library.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

Made reading articles MUCH easier 16 May 2009

By H. C. Cullimore

I am a therapy radiographer. I bought this book to make sense of the articles I was reading on monoclonal antibodies with hazard ratios, odds ratios, confidence intervals, p-values, regression models and Kaplan-Meier survival plots.
The book has small bite-size chapters on each subject which are really easy to read. Each section points out the importance of the statistical topic and how easy they are to follow.
What is particularly useful is the examples of each subject that are provided which takes a topic and breaks it down and explains what the statistical term means for that example.
Each section also has an 'exam tip' at the end pointing out the topics examiners like to ask about.
At the end of the book there is a section where you can rest your understanding of the statistics used in actual research papers. Although I failed dismally at spotting all the statistics used, it gave me a useful framework which I used to critique an article for my assignment.
All in all, an excellt book which made reading articles MUCH easier and allowed me to understand the results of the articles I was reading.