Opinion Article Open Access

Hard science, Soft data, and the difficulties of selecting Clinical Variables in Study

Abstract

The investigating clinician has not been idle during these mathematical operations. He is usually in charge of developing the basic ideas to be tested in the research, assembling any additional clinicians who collaborated, recruiting the patients who volunteered to be observed, providing or arranging for suitable care for those patients, and recording the information that describes what happened to them. At important points in the evaluation process, the clinician is responsible for determining whether a "significant" finding is substantively rather than just stochastically significant. Although this split of research territory appears to be well suited to the diverse abilities, backgrounds, and interests of the clinical and statistical partners, a critical scientific zone of the area has yet to be explored.

Karrie Williams

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