Recording and interpreting numbers

Numbers are needed to record the results of fair tests of treatments, and tables and graphs are used to describe the characteristics and experience of groups of patients, the treatment they have received, and quantitative estimates of treatment effects.


JLL Essay
3.1 Recording and interpreting numbers in testing treatments

Taking account of the play of chance

 

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Schoeler T, Speed D, Porcu E, Pirastu N, Pingault JB, Kutalik Z (2023)
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al-Razi (10th century CE)
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Glasziou P, Matthews R, Boutron I, Chalmers I, Armitage P† (2023)
The differences and overlaps between ‘explanatory’ and ‘pragmatic’ controlled trials: a historical perspective. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Held L, Matthews RAJ (2022).
Paradigm lost: Carl Liebermeister and the development of modern medical statistics. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Matthews RAJ (2020).
The origins of the treatment of uncertainty in clinical medicine. Part 1: Ancient roots, familiar disputes. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Matthews RAJ (2020).
The origins of the treatment of uncertainty in clinical medicine. Part 2: the emergence of probability theory and its limitations. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2020)
Probabilistic thinking and the evaluation of therapies, 1700-1900. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Marson Smith P, Colquhoun D, Chalmers I (2019).
John Henry Gaddum’s 1940 guidance on controlled clinical trials JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Altman DG† (2017).
Donald Mainland: anatomist, educator, thinker, medical statistician, trialist, rheumatologist. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Senn SJ (2017).
Cushny and Peebles, optical isomers, and the birth of modern statistics. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2014).
Statistics and the British controversy about the effects of Joseph Lister’s system of antisepsis for surgery, 1867-1890. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Milne I, Chalmers I (2014).
Alexander Lesassier Hamilton’s 1816 report of a controlled trial of bloodletting. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Pormann PE (2013).
Qualifying and quantifying medical uncertainty in 10th century Baghdad: Abu Bakr al-Razi. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2013).
William Cheselden’s 1740 presentation of data on age-specific mortality after lithotomy. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Boylston AW (2012).
The origins of vaccination: no inoculation, no vaccination. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Boylston AW (2012).
John Haygarth’s 18th century ‘Rules of Prevention’ for eradicating smallpox. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Boylston AW (2012).
The origins of inoculation. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Milne I (2012).
Who was James Lind, and what exactly did he achieve? JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Boylston AW (2011).
Observation and experimentation in developing ‘the Suttonian Method’ of inoculation. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Boylston AW (2010).
Thomas Nettleton and the dawn of quantitative assessments of the effects of medical interventions. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2010).
The introduction of numerical methods to assess the effects of medical interventions during the 18th century: a brief history. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Moore W (2009).
John Hunter: learning from natural experiments, ‘placebos’, and the state of mind of a patient in the 18th century. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Boylston AW (2008).
Zabdiel Boylston (1679/80-1766). JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Boylston AW (2008).
William Watson’s use of controlled clinical experiments in 1768. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Boylston AW, Williams AE (2008).
Zabdiel Boylston’s evaluation of inoculation against smallpox. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2007).
An early 18th century proposal for improving medicine by tabulating and analysing practice. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Huth EJ (2006).
Benjamin Franklin’s (1706-1790), place in the history of medicine. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Huth EJ (2006).
Transatlantic ideas on the philosophy of therapeutics in the middle of the 19th century. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Huth EJ (2006).
Elisha Bartlett (1804–1855), an American disciple of Jules Gavarret. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Huth EJ (2006).
Jules Gavarret’s Principes Généraux de Statistique Médicale: a pioneering text on the statistical analysis of the results of treatments. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Huth EJ (2005).
Quantitative evidence for judgments on the efficacy of inoculation for the prevention of smallpox: England and New England in the 1700s. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Lee MR (2005).
William Withering (1741-1799), a biographical sketch of a Birmingham Lunatic. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Morabia A (2004).
Pierre-Charles-Alexandre Louis and the evaluation of bloodletting. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Rolls R (2003).
Caleb Hillier Parry (1755-1822). JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2003).
John Clark 1780 & 1792: learning from properly kept records. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2003).
John Clark (1744-1805). JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2003).
Withering’s 1785 appeal for caution when reporting on a new medicine. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2003).
James Lind and scurvy: 1747 to 1795. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2003).
James Lind and the evaluation of clinical practice. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2003).
Edward Alanson 1782: responsibility in surgical innovation. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2003).
Edward Alanson (1747-1823). JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2003).
MacLean 1818: comparing like with like and recognising ethical double standards in therapeutic experimentation. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (2003).
Charles MacLean (c.1766-1824). JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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Tröhler U (1978).
Quantification in British Medicine and Surgery 1750-1830, with special Reference to its Introduction into Therapeutics. Philosophy Thesis, University of London. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation.

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