Statistical Methods in Healthcare

An important role of diagnostic medicine research is to estimate and compare the accuracies of diagnostic tests. This book provides a comprehensive account of statistical methods for design and analysis of diagnostic studies, including sample size calculations, estimation of the accuracy of a diagnostic test, comparison of accuracies of competing diagnostic tests, and regression analysis of diagnostic accuracy data. Discussing recently developed methods for correction of verification bias and imperfect reference bias, methods for analysis of clustered diagnostic accuracy data, and meta-analysis methods, Statistical Methods in Diagnostic Medicine explains: * Common measures of diagnostic accuracy and designs for diagnostic accuracy studies * Methods of estimation and hypothesis testing of the accuracy of diagnostic tests * Meta-analysis * Advanced analytic techniques-including methods for comparing correlated ROC curves in multi-reader studies, correcting verification bias, and correcting when an imperfect gold standard is used Thoroughly detailed with numerous applications and end-of-chapter problems as well as a related FTP site providing FORTRAN program listings, data sets, and instructional hints, Statistical Methods in Diagnostic Medicine is a valuable addition to the literature of the field, serving as a much-needed guide for both clinicians and advanced students.

Praise for the First Edition « . . . the book is a valuable addition to the literature in the field, serving as a much-needed guide for both clinicians and advanced students.»—Zentralblatt MATH A new edition of the cutting-edge guide to diagnostic tests in medical research In recent years, a considerable amount of research has focused on evolving methods for designing and analyzing diagnostic accuracy studies. Statistical Methods in Diagnostic Medicine, Second Edition continues to provide a comprehensive approach to the topic, guiding readers through the necessary practices for understanding these studies and generalizing the results to patient populations. Following a basic introduction to measuring test accuracy and study design, the authors successfully define various measures of diagnostic accuracy, describe strategies for designing diagnostic accuracy studies, and present key statistical methods for estimating and comparing test accuracy. Topics new to the Second Edition include: Methods for tests designed to detect and locate lesions Recommendations for covariate-adjustment Methods for estimating and comparing predictive values and sample size calculations Correcting techniques for verification and imperfect standard biases Sample size calculation for multiple reader studies when pilot data are available Updated meta-analysis methods, now incorporating random effects Three case studies thoroughly showcase some of the questions and statistical issues that arise in diagnostic medicine, with all associated data provided in detailed appendices. A related web site features Fortran, SAS®, and R software packages so that readers can conduct their own analyses. Statistical Methods in Diagnostic Medicine, Second Edition is an excellent supplement for biostatistics courses at the graduate level. It also serves as a valuable reference for clinicians and researchers working in the fields of medicine, epidemiology, and biostatistics.

Assessment Methods in Statistical Education: An International Perspective provides a modern, international perspective on assessing students of statistics in higher education. It is a collection of contributions written by some of the leading figures in statistical education from around the world, drawing on their personal teaching experience and educational research. The book reflects the wide variety of disciplines, such as business, psychology and the health sciences, which include statistics teaching and assessment. The authors acknowledge the increasingly important role of technology in assessment, whether it be using the internet for accessing information and data sources or using software to construct and manage individualised or online assessments. Key Features: Presents successful assessment strategies, striking a balance between formative and summative assessment, individual and group work, take-away assignments and supervised tests. Assesses statistical thinking by questioning students’ ability to interpret and communicate the results of their analysis. Relates assessment to the real world by basing it on real data in an appropriate context. Provides a range of individualised assessment methods, including those that deter plagiarism and collusion by providing each student with a unique problem to solve or dataset to analyse. This book is essential reading for anyone involved in teaching statistics at tertiary level or interested in statistical education research.

Spatial epidemiology is the description and analysis of the geographical distribution of disease. It is more important now than ever, with modern threats such as bio-terrorism making such analysis even more complex. This second edition of Statistical Methods in Spatial Epidemiology is updated and expanded to offer a complete coverage of the analysis and application of spatial statistical methods. The book is divided into two main sections: Part 1 introduces basic definitions and terminology, along with map construction and some basic models. This is expanded upon in Part II by applying this knowledge to the fundamental problems within spatial epidemiology, such as disease mapping, ecological analysis, disease clustering, bio-terrorism, space-time analysis, surveillance and infectious disease modelling. Provides a comprehensive overview of the main statistical methods used in spatial epidemiology. Updated to include a new emphasis on bio-terrorism and disease surveillance. Emphasizes the importance of space-time modelling and outlines the practical application of the method. Discusses the wide range of software available for analyzing spatial data, including WinBUGS, SaTScan and R, and features an accompanying website hosting related software. Contains numerous data sets, each representing a different approach to the analysis, and provides an insight into various modelling techniques. This text is primarily aimed at medical statisticians, researchers and practitioners from public health and epidemiology. It is also suitable for postgraduate students of statistics and epidemiology, as well professionals working in government agencies.

This statistics textbook, with particular emphasis on radiation protection and dosimetry, deals with statistical solutions to problems inherent in health physics measurements and decision making. The authors begin with a description of our current understanding of the statistical nature of physical processes at the atomic level, including radioactive decay and interactions of radiation with matter. Examples are taken from problems encountered in health physics, and the material is presented such that health physicists and most other nuclear professionals will more readily understand the application of statistical principles in the familiar context of the examples. Problems are presented at the end of each chapter, with solutions to selected problems provided online. In addition, numerous worked examples are included throughout the text.

The explanation and implementation of statistical methods for the medical researcher or statistician remains an integral part of modern medical research. This book explains the use of experimental and analytical biostatistics systems. Its accessible style allows it to be used by the non-mathematician as a fundamental component of successful research. Since the third edition, there have been many developments in statistical techniques. The fourth edition provides the medical statistician with an accessible guide to these techniques and to reflect the extent of their usage in medical research. The new edition takes a much more comprehensive approach to its subject. There has been a radical reorganization of the text to improve the continuity and cohesion of the presentation and to extend the scope by covering many new ideas now being introduced into the analysis of medical research data. The authors have tried to maintain the modest level of mathematical exposition that characterized the earlier editions, essentially confining the mathematics to the statement of algebraic formulae rather than pursuing mathematical proofs. Received the Highly Commended Certificate in the Public Health Category of the 2002 BMA Books Competition.

This groundbreaking book introduces the application of statistical methodologies to e-Commerce data With the expanding presence of technology in today's economic market, the use of the Internet for buying, selling, and investing is growing more popular and public in nature. Statistical Methods in e-Commerce Research is the first book of its kind to focus on the statistical models and methods that are essential in order to analyze information from electronic-commerce (e-Commerce) transactions, identify the challenges that arise with new e-Commerce data structures, and discover new knowledge about consumer activity. This collection gathers over thirty researchers and practitioners from the fields of statistics, computer science, information systems, and marketing to discuss the growing use of statistical methods in e-Commerce research. From privacy protection to economic impact, the book first identifies the many obstacles that are encountered while collecting, cleaning, exploring, and analyzing e-Commerce data. Solutions to these problems are then suggested using established and newly developed statistical and data mining methods. Finally, a look into the future of this evolving area of study is provided through an in-depth discussion of the emerging methods for conducting e-Commerce research. Statistical Methods in e-Commerce Research successfully bridges the gap between statistics and e-Commerce, introducing a statistical approach to solving challenges that arise in the context of online transactions, while also introducing a wide range of e-Commerce applications and problems where novel statistical methodology is warranted. It is an ideal text for courses on e-Commerce at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels and also serves as a valuable reference for researchers and analysts across a wide array of subject areas, including economics, marketing, and information systems who would like to gain a deeper understanding of the use of statistics in their work.

Statistical Methods in Customer Relationship Management focuses on the quantitative and modeling aspects of customer management strategies that lead to future firm profitability, with emphasis on developing an understanding of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) models as the guiding concept for profitable customer management. To understand and explore the functioning of CRM models, this book traces the management strategies throughout a customer’s tenure with a firm. Furthermore, the book explores in detail CRM models for customer acquisition, customer retention, customer acquisition and retention, customer churn, and customer win back. Statistical Methods in Customer Relationship Management: Provides an overview of a CRM system, introducing key concepts and metrics needed to understand and implement these models. Focuses on five CRM models: customer acquisition, customer retention, customer churn, and customer win back with supporting case studies. Explores each model in detail, from investigating the need for CRM models to looking at the future of the models. Presents models and concepts that span across the introductory, advanced, and specialist levels. Academics and practitioners involved in the area of CRM as well as instructors of applied statistics and quantitative marketing courses will benefit from this book.

Praise for the Second Edition “This book should be an essential part of the personal library of every practicing statistician.”—Technometrics Thoroughly revised and updated, the new edition of Nonparametric Statistical Methods includes additional modern topics and procedures, more practical data sets, and new problems from real-life situations. The book continues to emphasize the importance of nonparametric methods as a significant branch of modern statistics and equips readers with the conceptual and technical skills necessary to select and apply the appropriate procedures for any given situation. Written by leading statisticians, Nonparametric Statistical Methods, Third Edition provides readers with crucial nonparametric techniques in a variety of settings, emphasizing the assumptions underlying the methods. The book provides an extensive array of examples that clearly illustrate how to use nonparametric approaches for handling one- or two-sample location and dispersion problems, dichotomous data, and one-way and two-way layout problems. In addition, the Third Edition features: The use of the freely available R software to aid in computation and simulation, including many new R programs written explicitly for this new edition New chapters that address density estimation, wavelets, smoothing, ranked set sampling, and Bayesian nonparametrics Problems that illustrate examples from agricultural science, astronomy, biology, criminology, education, engineering, environmental science, geology, home economics, medicine, oceanography, physics, psychology, sociology, and space science Nonparametric Statistical Methods, Third Edition is an excellent reference for applied statisticians and practitioners who seek a review of nonparametric methods and their relevant applications. The book is also an ideal textbook for upper-undergraduate and first-year graduate courses in applied nonparametric statistics.

The Wiley-Interscience Paperback Series consists of selected books that have been made more accessible to consumers in an effort to increase global appeal and general circulation. With these new unabridged softcover volumes, Wiley hopes to extend the lives of these works by making them available to future generations of statisticians, mathematicians, and scientists. «This book, it must be said, lives up to the words on its advertising cover: 'Bridging the gap between introductory, descriptive approaches and highly advanced theoretical treatises, it provides a practical, intermediate level discussion of a variety of forecasting tools, and explains how they relate to one another, both in theory and practice.' It does just that!» -Journal of the Royal Statistical Society «A well-written work that deals with statistical methods and models that can be used to produce short-term forecasts, this book has wide-ranging applications. It could be used in the context of a study of regression, forecasting, and time series analysis by PhD students; or to support a concentration in quantitative methods for MBA students; or as a work in applied statistics for advanced undergraduates.» -Choice Statistical Methods for Forecasting is a comprehensive, readable treatment of statistical methods and models used to produce short-term forecasts. The interconnections between the forecasting models and methods are thoroughly explained, and the gap between theory and practice is successfully bridged. Special topics are discussed, such as transfer function modeling; Kalman filtering; state space models; Bayesian forecasting; and methods for forecast evaluation, comparison, and control. The book provides time series, autocorrelation, and partial autocorrelation plots, as well as examples and exercises using real data. Statistical Methods for Forecasting serves as an outstanding textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in statistics, business, engineering, and the social sciences, as well as a working reference for professionals in business, industry, and government.