The Role of Statistics in the Furtherance of Medical Research

Synopsis

The wartime development of Army medical statistics has yielded a new vision of how statistics can serve and advance medicine in the interests of society as a whole.

The abundant and unique opportunities which the Army has provided have served to emphasise a function of medical statistics which though fully recognised by the actuarial profession has hitherto been largely disregarded by the medical. Statistics should clarify our views about what aspects of health and disease have the most pressing claims on national expenditure for research or preventive policy.

Army experience has suggested a new approach to the problems of civilian health statistics. It can provide an answer to the question as to which is the greater need: (a) a more widespread recognition of how statistical techniques can advance medical knowledge; or (b) a vigorous attack on the problem of making more informative and reliable data available for statistical interpretation by creating appropriate administrative machinery.

This theme is thereafter developed and suggestions are made as to methods which might be adopted to create the necessary machinery through collaboration between organisations already in existence.