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This book was the text for the intro to Biostat class at Columbia University this year. It is lucid, well organized, doesn't bog down in details or equations, and gives a good introductory explanation of the basic statistical methods, their rationale for use, and their various assumptions and shortcomings.

I can't imagine trying to do stats without a copy of this book beside me - I'd be lost. If you're in need of a book to help you understand medical statistics as they are presented in the literature, you should use this book and eschew all others.

I have been teaching statistical methods and epidemiology for graduate students in the health area for more than 5 years and this book is a hit. Previously I tried Armitage & Berry and got a lot of resistance from the students. Altman's book is well organized, presents the problems and their solutions in a very intuitive way, and focus on the real problems in the area. Very good for introductory courses. I usually use Kirkwood's Essentials of Medical Statistics in parallel.

This is a very well written and popular text on biostatistics. Altman writes for non-statisticians but the book is best suited for those with at least one prior course in statistics and those who have had mathematics through high school algebra. Emphasis is placed on the important practical problems. Good statistical designs and analyses are emphasized. The pitfalls with many published medical articles are discussed in Chapter 16.

I used this book to teach a 20 lecture course to students (engineers, clinicians and computer scientists) at Pacesetter in 1998 and at Biosense Webster in 1999 (both medical device companies that employed me as senior biostatistician). It was a good refresher course for the CRAs and engineers and it helped to make it easier for me to work with them on their statistical problems.

I have also taught a similar course to undergraduate students in the Health Science Department at Cal State Long Beach. Altman's book is a little too advanced to use as a text for that course but I did use it as a reference and covered material in Chapter 16 at the end of the course. Clear discussion of the medical literature is very important to these students and Altman does a great job!