About our biostatistician services

Biostatistics is a branch of statistics that applies statistical methods to biological, health, and medical research. A biostatistician uses statistical techniques to identify and quantify patterns in biological or medical data, assess the effectiveness of medical treatments and health interventions, and identify risk factors for diseases, among other things.

In the field of biostatistics, I mostly assist Master of Medicine (MMed) students from all the major universities in South Africa.   

Medical Disciplines

I perform biostatistical analysis across all specialisations, and have worked with data from the following disciplines:  

·        Anaesthesia

·        Diagnostic Radiology

·        Emergency Medicine

·        Family Medicine

·        Genetics

·        Internal Medicine

·        Mammography

·        Medical Microbiology

·        Neurology

·        Obstetrics & Gynaecology

·        Ophthalmology

·        Optometry

·        Orthopaedic Surgery

·        Otorhinolaryngology

·        Paediatrics

·        Pathology

·        Psychiatry

·        Urology

Methods

Most of the data that I have worked with has been collected using retrospective designs, but occassionally from prospective crossectional designs too. In relation to the statistical analysis, over and above basic descriptive statistics that profile patients’ demographic and clinical characteristics, the most applied statistical methods have been the following:

Hypotheses testing

·        Independent samples t-test (or Mann Whitney U test for non-parametric data)

·        Paired samples t-test (or Wilcoxon sign rank test for non-parametric data)

·        One way ANOVA (or Kruskal-Wallis test for non parametric data)

·        Pearson’s chi-square test

·        Fisher’s exact test

·        Binomial test

Correlational Analysis

·        Pearson’s correlation

·        Spearman’s correlation

·        Point-Biserial correlation

Regression Analysis

·        Linear regression (Simple & Multiple)

·        Logistic regression (Binary & Multinomial)

·        Reciever Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve analysis

Survival Analysis

·        Cox regression modelling

·        Kaplan-Meier curve analysis

Diagnostic Reliability

·        Accuracy metrics (Sensitivity, Specificity, NPV, PPV)

·        Cohen’s kappa

·        Fleiss kappa

·        Intraclass correlation coefficient

·        Bland-Altman plots

Altogether, the biostatistics arm of my services continues to grow, and I attribute this to the fact that most clients go on to recommend my services to others, for which I am truly grateful.