Document Detail


Woods and Russell, Hill, and the emergence of medical statistics.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20535761     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
In 1937, Austin Bradford Hill wrote Principles of Medical Statistics (Lancet: London, 1937) that became renowned throughout the world and is widely associated with the birth of modern medical statistics. Some 6 years earlier Hilda Mary Woods and William Thomas Russell, colleagues of Hill at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, wrote a similar book An Introduction to Medical Statistics (PS King and Son: London, 1931) that is little known today. We trace the origins of these two books from the foundations of early demography and vital statistics, and make a detailed examination of some of their chapters. It is clear that these texts mark a watershed in the history of medical statistics that demarcates the vital statistics of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from the modern discipline. Moreover, we consider that the book by Woods and Russell is of some importance in the development of medical statistics and we describe and acknowledge their place in the history of this discipline.
Authors:
Vern Farewell; Tony Johnson
Publication Detail:
Type:  Biography; Historical Article; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Statistics in medicine     Volume:  29     ISSN:  1097-0258     ISO Abbreviation:  Stat Med     Publication Date:  2010 Jun 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-06-10     Completed Date:  2010-09-09     Revised Date:  2011-03-01    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  8215016     Medline TA:  Stat Med     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  1459-76     Citation Subset:  IM    
Copyright Information:
(c) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge Institute of Public Health, University Forvie Site, Cambridge CB2 0SR, U.K. ern.farewell@mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
History, 20th Century
London
Statistics as Topic / history*
Grant Support
ID/Acronym/Agency:
U.1052.00.009//Medical Research Council
Personal Name Subject
Personal Name Subject:
Austin Bradford Hill; Hilda Mary Woods; William Thomas Russell

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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