medical statistics
To make hard decisions, you need hard facts. Medical statistics can help us to decide what treatment to look for when we are ill, and to estimate our chances of recovery.
Ever since the thalidomide tragedy, governments have realised the importance of a strict licensing regime for new drugs. Medical statistician Robert Hemmings explains how his work for the Medicines Control Agency helps to safeguard the health of the nation.
What's the risk of passive smoking? Or climate change? How big is the terrorist threat? And should we trust league tables? These issues concern all of us, but it's not always easy to make sense of the barrage of media information. David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk, gives Plus his take on uncertainty.
Use our animations to find out
