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This paper is from Session 4F: Improving the statistical literacy of users through their professional activities

which comes under Topic 4: Statistics education/training and the workplace             Full topic list

(Monday 3rd, 14:00-15:30)

Changing approaches and perceptions: Biostatistics and its role in teaching the Stellenbosch doctor

Presenter

• Paul J Mostert (South Africa)

Abstract

The role of Biostatistics in Medicine and Health Care is sometimes only fully understood and appreciated by medical practitioners once they are fully qualified. Biostatistics and Epidemiology are also subjects in the medical curriculum that are disliked by most undergraduate students. The ‘Profile of the Stellenbosch doctor’ is a set of professional characteristics that every successful graduate possess, once they have qualified. The curriculum is therefore designed around this profile, where the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Stellenbosch University in South Africa was one of the role players, especially with the introduction of a ‘golden thread’. The negativity of our medical students towards Biostatistics is real and a lot of that blame can be assigned to the way we teach and what biostatisticians think should be covered in a syllabus. Students normally struggle with probability and its applications and by introducing Bayesian approaches to the analyses will further complicate their understanding thereof.