Medical Statistics I: Formulating Clinical Questions

In the first of his series on medical statistics, Rob Radcliffe, maths graduate, former maths teacher and current trainee in surgery in East Midlands School of Surgery, talks us through a way to clearly formulate clinical questions. Correct formulation of these questions is fundamental to research, the correct use of statistics in clinical settings and will help you to read, interpret and critique a scientific paper. Rob describes, using an example from his own practice, the PICO method to help with logical formulation of clinical questions each time we want to ask them.
This podcast is aimed at medical students, core trainees in surgery (junior residents), trainees in higher surgical training, consultants and anyone interested in research, reading, writing or reviewing an academic paper. This, and the rest of the series, will be especially useful to trainees coming up to interview or examination where there will be an academic component with an expectation of a working knowledge of statistics.
The next part of the series will cover descriptive statistics