Dicing with Death
Living by Data
2nd Edition
Published on 8. December 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
338 pages
978-1-108-99986-1 (ISBN)
Description
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical statistics and public health data have become staples of newsfeeds worldwide, with infection rates, deaths, case fatality and the mysterious R figure featuring regularly. However, we don't all have the statistical background needed to translate this information into knowledge. In this lively account, Stephen Senn explains these statistical phenomena and demonstrates how statistics is essential to making rational decisions about medical care. The second edition has been thoroughly updated to cover developments of the last two decades and includes a new chapter on medical statistical challenges of COVID-19, along with additional material on infectious disease modelling and representation of women in clinical trials. Senn entertains with anecdotes, puzzles and paradoxes, while tackling big themes including: clinical trials and the development of medicines, life tables, vaccines and their risks or lack of them, smoking and lung cancer, and even the power of prayer.
Reviews / Votes
'The COVID pandemic has shown the power of statistics to save millions of lives by revealing 'what works'. Yet statistical methods have a deeply controversial history, and provoke sometimes bitter debate to this day. Professor Stephen Senn is renowned for his brilliant insights on the subject, and in Dicing with Death he offers us a series of fascinating journeys through its vast and varied landscape.' Robert Matthews, Visiting Professor Aston University and author of Chancing It: The Laws of Chance and How They Can Work for You 'I will strongly recommend this book to statisticians as well as non-statisticians who are working in the area of public health or otherwise. Given the price of the book, it will be an asset to any personal library or University library.' Kuldeep Kumar, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in SocietyMore details
Edition
2nd Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Edition type
Revised edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
494 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-108-99986-1 (9781108999861)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2022
Cambridge University Press
€24.49
Available for download
Previous edition
Book
11/2003
Cambridge University Press
€133.70
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Stephen Senn has worked as a statistician and as an academic in Switzerland, Scotland, England and Luxembourg. He is the author of Statistical Issues in Drug Development (1997, 2007, 2021) and Cross-over Trials in Clinical Research (1993, 2002). He was awarded the Bradford Hill Medal of the Royal Statistical Society in 2009 and holds honorary chairs at the University of Sheffield and at the University of Edinburgh.
Content
1. Circling the square; 2. The diceman cometh; 3. Trials of life; 4. Of dice and men; 5. Sex and the single patient; 6. A hale view of pills (and other matters); 7. Time's tables; 8. A dip in the pool; 9. The things that bug us; 10. The law is a ass; 11. The empire of the sum; 12. Going viral; Notes; Index.