Class
3
financial data was triggered by
a simple example that showed
how scale differences can lead
to differing conclusions.
Be wary of advocates with
numbers: This was illustrated
by ad campaigns in which vari-
ous cell phone providers used
different criteria to allow each to
claim to be the “most reliable.”
Class 3: Health Studies
Find out how numbers are
This session, taught by geneticist obtained: The failure to rec-
and science writer Ricki Lewis— ognize censored O-ring failure
the only nonstatistician among the data—resulting in the disastrous
five of us—examined sources of decision to launch the NASA space
science news and feature stories. shuttle Challenger on an unusually
Anatomy of a medical journal:
cold Florida morning in January
Class
To get a flavor of how medical
1986—was discussed.
5
journals use and present statistics,
The second part of the session
we examined a February 2008
briefly described the Six Sigma ini-
issue of The New England Journal
tiative and provided the following
of Medicine. The eight articles illus-
examples of how statistics is used
Class 5: Further Examples
trated such concepts as the value of
in business and industry:
and Wrap-Up
negative evidence, confusing corre-
Identifying differences Quantifying the subjective:
lation with causation, the use of the
and seeking their causes: We used the U.S. News and World
odds ratio to evaluate cancer risk,
We illustrated this by a Report yearly college rankings as
and sample size requirements.
comparison of key perfor- an illustration.
The drug approval process: We
mance characteristics at two
Testing in schools: We described
described the drug approval pro-
manufacturing plants.
how New York assesses confor-
cess in the United States and its
Improving operations:
mance to the 2001 No Child Left
implications, as well as some health
This was illustrated by a TV
Behind Act (and some of the limi-
studies in the news.
network’s efforts to improve
tations) and the more statistically
Sources of distortion: We used
the quality of its closed cap-
refined “added value assessment”
news releases (mostly from www.
tions (i.e., subtitles for those
method.
eurekalert.org) to illustrate statistical
with hearing difficulties).
More on data mining: We dis-
errors and misinterpretations.
cussed data mining to assess pollu-
Preventing fraudulent tion in Lake Champlain, personal
Class 4: Business and
activities: This was illustrat- privacy issues, and how Wal-Mart
Industrial Applications
ed by a study of the effec- uses its massive data warehouse to
tiveness of sending different help its bottom line.
The first part of this session illus-
warning letters to Internet
trated common pitfalls and mis-
Diagnosis of a “one-in-a-million”
users who were illegally
uses of statistics in business and
chance event: We scrutinized a
sharing copyrighted files.
industry, providing the following
misleading media claim that the
recommendations:
odds of Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and President Barack
Find out how numbers are
Obama each getting 6,001 votes
defined: The discussion
in the Syracuse, New York,
was illustrated by the Mars
Democratic primary (as they
Climate Orbiter—lost dur-
Class
did) “are less than one in
ing entry into Mars’ orbit
due to the team’s failure to
4
a million.”
convert measurements to the
Sports applications: We
metric system.
provided overviews from
baseball, basketball, and
Graphic displays are highly
football.
useful, but can also mislead:
A lively discussion of potential
pitfalls in graphs used to display
18 AMSTAT NEWS FEBRUARY 2009
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