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Biostatistician
Applies statistics to biology and medicine — designs clinical trials and analyzes health data.
Did you know?
The first modern randomised clinical trial, testing streptomycin against tuberculosis in 1948, was designed by statistician Austin Bradford Hill.
How subjects help
- Mathematics: Calculate how many patients a medical trial needs to give a reliable answer.
- Statistics: Compare treated and untreated groups to see if a new medicine really works.
- Biology: Understand how a disease works so a study measures the right things.
- Computer Science: Write code to analyse health records and gene data from thousands of people.
A famous name
Austin Bradford Hill: Medical statistician who pioneered the randomised clinical trial (TB, 1948) and linked smoking to cancer.
Try it yourself: Which dice total wins?
- Write the numbers 2 to 12 down the side of your paper. Guess which total will come up most and write your guess at the top.
- Roll both dice, add them, and put a tally mark next to that total. Do at least 36 rolls.
- Look at your tallies. Which total came up most? Which hardly ever?
- Now list every way two dice can make each total (a 7 can be 1+6, 2+5 and so on). Does the number of ways explain your results?
Statisticians and actuaries compare what actually happens with what probability predicts, which is how they price insurance, test medicines and spot when something unusual is going on.
Adapted from NRICH (University of Cambridge): A Bit of a Dicey Problem.
Also try: Catch a flipped coin like a network does.
Known for it in
USA, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Australia