Statistics As a Condemned Building: a Demolition and Reconstruction Plan

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Statistics As a Condemned Building: a Demolition and Reconstruction Plan

EPIDEMIOLOGY SEMINAR / WINTER 2019 THE DEPARTMENT OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, BIOSTATISTICS AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH, - SEMINAR SERIES IS A SELF-APPROVED GROUP LEARNING ACTIVITY (SECTION 1) AS DEFINED BY THE MAINTENANCE OF CERTIFICATION PROGRAM OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF CANADA Sander Greenland Emeritus Professor Epidemiology and Statistics University of California, Los Angeles Statistics as a Condemned Building: A Demolition and Reconstruction Plan MONDAY, 18 FEBRUARY 2019 / 4:00PM 5:00PM McIntyre Medical Building 3655 promenade Sir William Osler – Meakins Rm 521 ALL ARE WELCOME ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES BIO: As part of the vast debate about how 1. To stop dichotomania Sander Greenland is Emeritus to reform statistics, I will argue that (unnecessary chopping of quan- Professor of Epidemiology and Sta- probability-centered statistics should tities into dichotomies); tistics at the University of California, be replaced by an integra- Los Angeles, specializing in the lim- 2. To stop nullism (unwarranted tion of cognitive science, caus- itations and misuse of statistical bias toward "null hypotheses" of al modeling, data descrip- methods, especially in observational no association or no effect); tion, and information transmis- studies. He has published over 400 sion, with probability entering as 3. To replace terms and concepts articles and book chapters in epide- one of the mathemati- like "statistical significance" and miology, statistics, and medicine, cal tools for delineating the pri- "confidence interval" with com- and given over 250 invited lectures, mary elements. Ironically, giv- patibility statements about hy- seminars and courses en the decades of treating it as potheses and models. worldwide in epidemiologic and scapegoat for all the ills of statistics, statistical methodology. the P-value re-emerges as a natural albeit small part of this basis. www.mcgill.ca/epi-biostat-occh/news-events/seminars/epidemiology .

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