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Biomedical subjects

Nick Summerton

Publications and source records attributed to Nick Summerton.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

On rural deprivation.

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Health Services Accessibility↗
PubMed2005

On diagnostics.

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Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures↗
PubMed2005

Statistical methods in epidemiology. VIII. On the use of likelihood ratios for diagnostic testing with an application to general practice.

PURPOSE: An array of statistical methods is available for 2 x 2 contingency table analysis. These include odds ratios, reliability coefficients and the Chi-squared test. This paper continues the '2 x 2' theme but extends it to look at diagnostic testing. The setting is primary care, the disease is urological cancer. METHOD: Several statistical indices are discussed to measure diagnostic efficiency; these include sensitivity, specificity and the likelihood ratio. The latter can be converted into a flexible 'weight of evidence', which is equivalent to the naive Bayes' discriminant. RESULTS: The utility of the naive Bayes' discriminant is illustrated in a primary care setting. CONCLUSION: The naive Bayes' discriminant has proved to be the most durable of statistical discriminants in medical diagnosis. The reason for its durability is ease of use. Despite a concern about independence, it remains a popular choice as a diagnostic aid.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Clinical management. Close encounters.

Primary care trusts are increasingly using 'local enhanced service' programmes to target excluded groups, according to new research. One in seven PCTs were using an LES for asylum seekers and other examples include homelessness, learning disabilities and work with young people. Other PCTs are using LESs to shift work from secondary to primary care via referral management incentive schemes, while one in five had set up an LES-based phlebotomy service.

Community Health Services↗
PubMed2004

A survey of statistics in three UK general practice journal.

BACKGROUND: Many medical specialities have reviewed the statistical content of their journals. To our knowledge this has not been done in general practice. Given the main role of a general practitioner as a diagnostician we thought it would be of interest to see whether the statistical methods reported reflect the diagnostic process. METHODS: Hand search of three UK journals of general practice namely the British Medical Journal (general practice section), British Journal of General Practice and Family Practice over a one-year period (1 January to 31 December 2000). RESULTS: A wide variety of statistical techniques were used. The most common methods included t-tests and Chi-squared tests. There were few articles reporting likelihood ratios and other useful diagnostic methods. There was evidence that the journals with the more thorough statistical review process reported a more complex and wider variety of statistical techniques. CONCLUSIONS: The BMJ had a wider range and greater diversity of statistical methods than the other two journals. However, in all three journals there was a dearth of papers reflecting the diagnostic process. Across all three journals there were relatively few papers describing randomised controlled trials thus recognising the difficulty of implementing this design in general practice.

Bibliometrics↗