hlabc biostatistics june 2013

2013 Pre-workshop surveyHLABC "Statistics Bootcamp 101"

Annual CE WorkshopJune 14th, 2013

HLABC "Statistics Bootcamp 101" June 14th, 2013

Preworkshop survey resultsSurvey: HLABC "Statistics Bootcamp 101" June 14th, 2013

Author: Dean Giustini

Executive SummaryThis report contains a detailed statistical analysis of survey results for the HLABC "Statistics Bootcamp 101" June 14th, 2013 . The analysis includes answers from respondents who took the survey in the 8 day period, April 22, 2013 to April 29, 2013.

N=25 completed responses were received


“…why do we, as health librarians, think it’s a good idea to invite a

biostatistician to give a workshop on statistics? …“


• biostatistics bi·o·sta·tis·tics (bī'ō-stə-tĭs'tĭks) n. The science of statistics applied to the analysis of biological or medical data …

• what is a biostatistician?

A biostatistician uses statistics to compile analyses of data retrieved from clinical trials to assist researchers in their study of the patterns of disease among populations, and to project the best method of intervention

What are biostatistics?

Penny Brasher is a Senior Research Scientist at C2E2 and an associate member of the UBC Department of Statistics. She is the Statistical Editor for the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia and has served on several grant review committees and ethics boards. Her research interests include clinical research methodology, secondary use of administrative data and statistical education

"Why do we, as health librarians, think it’s a good idea to invite a biostatistician to give a workshop on statistics?" (Dr. Brasher has asked this question. Provide your answer in the space below.)

No answer

just because

to become more knowledgeable about critical appraisal - what I can and cannot do based on my level of knowledge, to be able to guide our clients

Statistics are already an essential part of health research and will only become more so in the future. As medical librarians we help researchers find and sometimes understand statistics and therefore it is important that we have a basic level of statistical literacy.

Because we educate students about evidence based practice, we need to have a sophisticated understanding of statistics.

Health librarians are often asked to do research (of the literature) for only the "best" articles on a topic. A clear understanding of biostatistics, how to critique research articles helps to determine whether or not literature we find meets criteria

Subject expertise will help librarians find quality articles for our clients

Because we can use statistics in library research for meaningful assessment and more.

We need to have a greater understanding of statistics in order to evaluate/appraise articles when selecting the best articles on a research topic.

Great to learn more about stats from someone who uses them.

people in health care are often looking for statistics to support the research ideas.

My background is in the hard sciences (PhD chemistry). As chemistry has to be reproducible to publish, very little statistics knowledge was needed and no course required. In health science information, I have had to try to teach myself basic stats to ensure that I'm understanding whether the statistics presented in a paper are a distortion, what confidence interval means, etc. I am very confused by stats, although things like NNT, NNH are easy to follow.

Our patrons need to access, use, and create good statistics (medical and other), and present us with questions and requests which assume we understand the field. We also teach and coach patrons in application of evidence, which often depends on correct understanding of the evidence.


Statistics and the surveillance of what we do as librarians is important in letting us know what activities are successful, what are not, and a snapshot of trends that can be used for short and long-term planning. It gives us clues as to what we can do better, or where we've done well...and metrics that can show our worth to others. A biostatistician will hopefully enable us to understand how health practitioners collect, use, and analyze data so that 1. librarians would be able to better interpret and evaluate health literature, and 2. strengthen our skills and knowledge by incorporating statistical measurements in the collection and analysis our own library data.

We provide education on critical appraisal and we should never be complacent

I work with biostatisticians, so it would be good to understand more about their work

A biostatistician is better than a non-biostatistician in my view

Working in the health sciences with topics and research methods that use biostatistics makes it imperative to have literacy in this area

To engage with an expert who comes from a perspective of generating, using, and teaching statistics. To discuss public and professional numeracy, issues about the misuse and misunderstanding of statistics, and ways we can better help our users.

Need to understand more about evaluating research not just the sources of the information.

Health librarians need to deepen their knowledge about basic science, statistics and other scientific concepts.

"Why do we, as health librarians, think it’s a good idea to invite a biostatistician to give a workshop on statistics?" (Dr. Brasher has asked this question. Provide your answer in the space below.)


If you could select only one topic for the session, what would it be?


Why do we do clinical research?


I would characterize my knowledge about statistics in biomedicine as (select one):


How do you primarily use your statistical knowledge in your work?


My primary goal in attending this session is to:


I will attend the June 14th 2013 HLABC Statistics Bootcamp 101


Descriptive statisticsAn example of the use of descriptive statistics occurs in drug studies. In papers reporting human subjects, there is typically a table that states the sample size in subgroups (e.g. treatment or exposure groups), and demographic or clinical characteristics such as average age, proportion of subjects in each gender and proportion of subjects with related comorbidities. Inferential statisticsWith inferential statistics, conclusions are made that go beyond the immediate data. For instance, inferential statistics are used to infer from sample data what a population might be thinking about something. Or, inferential statistics are used to make judgments of the probability that an observed difference between groups is dependent on something happening, or might have happened by chance. Inferential statistics are used to make inferences from the data collected and used to describe what is probably happening

For more basic information on statistical literacy, see: http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Statistics_for_academic_librarians


http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Statistics_for_academic_librarians

hlabc biostatistics june 2013

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