A Survey of Biostatistics Teaching in Medicine and Dentistry in Higher Education in the UK

This chapter presents a survey of biostatistics teaching in medical and dental schools in higher education in the United Kingdom (UK) that is completed by participants of the Burwalls conferences each year. Results show that enormous variation occurs in biostatistics teaching in the UK in terms of class sizes, numbers of years over which biostatistics was taught, methods of delivery of teaching, types of assessments, software employed (if at all), textbooks recommended (etc.). However, a “core set” of concepts and (separately) of analytical calculations (including equations) does emerge from the data. Generally, there was a stronger emphasis during teaching on the “practical” rather than “theoretical” aspects of biostatistics. Three main focusses of or motivations for teaching biostatistics were identified, namely: research, evidence-based medicine, and public health/epidemiology. This illustrates that biostatistics plays a key role in medicine and dentistry (and beyond); it therefore needs to be taught effectively and it needs to be taught well