monochrome

Two and one half years have ticked off the mantle top clock since the last post on this blog. Even more embarrassing is a swift look at the goals mentioned in that last post: publishing a case study in the national physical therapy journal (that didn't happen), become a researcher (not much traction on that over 2.5 years), becoming a voice that shapes physical therapy knowledge (I haven't even started talking yet). Alas and alack, my life was actually interesting over the last couple years: job changes, selling/buying a house, first born daughter arrived on the scene, theological growth, starting graduate classes again. No time for the monochrome world of research. I had some life to live. Life is settling down a little now. Hopefully a little more tranquility will invade my work life over the coming months and then I can really begin in earnest tackling scientific epistemology viz a vi statistics and clinical research.

Interestingly enough, my introduction to biostatistics course this summer is a refreshing reminder that learning is fun. My instructors Drs. Shukla and Dwivedi are doing a superb job of instructing the class at a philosophical level. They are engaging questions of statistical certainty within the constraints of probabilistic mathematics (a world they refer to as fuzzy or gray) counterbalancing the clinical drive for a definite answer for ailing patients. The most unique concept I have learned to date is this: hypothesis testing (i.e.: level of significance and p-value) does not result in a mathematical acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis. Rather, hypothesis testing adds or removes weight to an a priori belief that the hypothesis is true. In this manner, statistics are legal procedures. The test statistic is the prosecuting trial attorney arguing the state's case in front of the judge and jury. The data is considered insignificant unless otherwise proven beyond reasonable doubt by the test statistic.

Next post will be a technical one exploring some aspect of statistics and how they relate to contemporary medical knowledge.