BJA: British Journal of Anaesthesia

The continual and often flagrant misuse of statistics within various sectors of society is something with which we are all familiar. But when it comes to science and peer reviewed work, we almost take it for granted that the calculations are correct and the conclusions drawn valid. Medical statistics can be complex and whilst somewhere in our distant past we probably once had an understanding of the maths involved, for many of us our expertise now lie elsewhere and we are left relying on the concept of the all powerful p value. However, the p value and the inferences drawn have been under scrutiny by the scientific community for some time and in this podcast we welcome back Neville Gibbs, to help clear up some common misconceptions and introduce us to the 'Effect Size Ratio', an easy and accessible tool to discern if claims of clinical superiority are reliable.