{{Short description|English statistician (1948–2018)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Doug Altman |image = Doug altman.jpeg |image_size = |caption = Professor Douglas Altman |birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1948|7|12}} |birth_place = London, England |death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2018|06|03|1948|07|12}} |death_place = |field = Statistician |work_institutions = Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Cancer Research UK, University of Oxford |alma_mater = University of Bath |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = Medical statistics |author_abbrev_bot = |author_abbrev_zoo = |prizes = Royal Statistical Society's Bradford Hill Medal (1997); BMJ Lifetime Achievement Award (2015) |footnotes = }}
'''Douglas Graham Altman''' FMedSci (12 July 1948 – 3 June 2018) was an English statistician best known for his work on improving the reliability and reporting of medical research and for highly cited papers on statistical methodology.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/medical-oscars-showcase-the-best-of-british-healthcare/ |title=Citation for 2015 British Medical Journal Awards 2015 |access-date=9 May 2015 |archive-date=17 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150817002056/http://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/medical-oscars-showcase-the-best-of-british-healthcare/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was professor of statistics in medicine at the University of Oxford, founder and Director of Centre for Statistics in Medicine and Cancer Research UK Medical Statistics Group,<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.octru.ox.ac.uk/team/researchers/doug-altman|title = Doug Altman |website = Oxford Clinical Trials Research Unit|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150409044538/http://www.octru.ox.ac.uk/team/researchers/doug-altman|archivedate = 2015-04-09}}</ref> and co-founder of the international Equator Network for health research reliability.
== Professional career ==
Doug Altman graduated in 1970 with an honours degree in statistics from Bath University of Technology, now the University of Bath. His first job was in the Department of Community Medicine, St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, London. He then spent 11 years working for the Medical Research Council's Clinical Research Centre where he worked almost entirely as a statistical consultant in a wide variety of medical areas. In 1988 Doug Altman became head of the newly formed Medical Statistics Laboratory (now Medical Statistics Group) at Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK), and in 1995 also became founding director of the Centre for Statistics in Medicine (CSM) in Oxford. In 1998 he was made Professor of Statistics in Medicine by the University of Oxford.
Altman was chief statistical advisor to the British Medical Journal, where he was a member of the editorial "hanging committee", and co-convenor of the statistical Methods Group of the Cochrane Collaboration.
== Work on research integrity == In 1994, he published an editorial in the ''BMJ'' where he argued that the poor use of statistics in medical research was scandalous.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Altman |first1=D G |title=The scandal of poor medical research |journal=BMJ |date=29 January 1994 |volume=308 |issue=6924 |pages=283–284 |doi=10.1136/bmj.308.6924.283|pmc=2539276 }}</ref> He wrote "What should we think about researchers who use the wrong techniques, use the right techniques wrongly, misinterpret their results, report their results selectively, cite the literature selectively, and draw unjustified conclusions? We should be appalled".<ref name= rss_obit/> and concluded "We need less research, better research, and research done for the right reasons".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Deeks |first1=Jonathan J |last2=Hopewell |first2=Sally |last3=Moher |first3=David |last4=Higgins |first4=Julian PT |last5=Moons |first5=Karel GM |last6=Chandler |first6=Jackie |last7=Antes |first7=Gerd |title=Doug Altman's legacy to Cochrane and evidence synthesis |journal=Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews |date=14 September 2018 |doi=10.1002/14651858.ED000127|pmc=10284314 }}</ref> This started the ongoing discussion of ''research waste'', which still persists today.
Altman was regarded as a leading authority on the execution and reporting of health research,<ref>{{cite journal |title=BMJ Group Lifetime Achievement Award |journal=BMJ |date=14 January 2010 |volume=340 |issue=jan14 2 |pages=c242–c242 |doi=10.1136/bmj.c242}}</ref> and played a leading role in establishing better standards. He was one of the co-founders of the international EQUATOR health research reliability network, and a member of the CONSORT Group from 1999, a group dedicated to offering a standardised way for researchers to report trials.
He was also one of the original authors of the IDEAL framework for improving surgical research.<ref>McCulloch P, Altman DG et al. "No surgical innovation without evaluation: the IDEAL recommendations." Lancet. 2009 Sep 26;374(9695):1105-12. {{doi|10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61116-8}}.</ref>
==Contributions to statistical education== Altman's publications on statistical education, many co-authored with his long-standing collaborator Martin Bland, are well known among the medical profession, being noted for their practical relevance and clarity.<ref>[http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c242 BMJ Lifetime Achievement Award citation 2010]</ref> His textbook ''Practical Statistics for Medical Research'', published in 1991, has sold 50,000 copies in hardback.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/news.php?story=105 |title=Departmental Report NDORMS University of Oxford May 2015 |access-date=9 May 2015 |archive-date=4 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704080012/http://www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/news.php?story=105 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Notable achievements== [[File:Bland-Altman Plot.svg|thumb|Example of a Bland–Altman plot for comparing the agreement between two methods of measurement]] Altman was the author of over 450 papers in statistical methodology, with 11 being cited over 1,000 times. Among them is a 1986 paper published in ''The Lancet'' titled "Statistical methods for assessing agreement between two methods of clinical measurement",<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martin Bland |first1=J. |last2=Altman |first2=Douglas G. |title=Statistical Methods for Assessing Agreement Between Two Methods of Clinical Measurement |journal=The Lancet |date=February 1986 |volume=327 |issue=8476 |pages=307–310 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(86)90837-8|url = https://www-users.york.ac.uk/~mb55/meas/ba.pdf }}</ref> which introduced the Bland–Altman plot. {{as of|2014}} the paper was ranked 29th in the Nature/Web of Science Top 100 most-cited research papers of all time.<ref>Van Noorden, Richard, Brendan Maher, and Regina Nuzzo [http://www.nature.com/news/the-top-100-papers-1.16224 "The top 100 papers." Nature 514.7524 (2014): 550-553. Excel sheet referenced therein]</ref> and {{as of|2018|lc=y}} it had been cited over 40,000 times.<ref name = rss_obit/> In May 2025, Altman became the first statistician with more than a million Google Scholar [https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=_QnLm3kAAAAJ citations].
Altman was awarded the Bradford Hill Medal by the Royal Statistical Society for his contributions to medical statistics in 1997,<ref name = rss_obit>{{cite web |title=Douglas Altman, 1948-2018 |url=https://rss.org.uk/news-publication/news-publications/2018/general-news/douglas-altman-1948-2018/ |website=Royal Statistical Society}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title = Bradford Hill Medal | publisher = Royal Statistical Society | url = http://www.rss.org.uk/site/cms/contentviewarticle.asp?article=1074 | accessdate = 3 January 2010 | archive-date = 17 March 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120317044927/http://www.rss.org.uk/site/cms/contentviewarticle.asp?article=1074 | url-status = dead }} Established in memory of Sir Austin Bradford Hill FRS</ref> and a DSc from the University of London in the same year.
In 2015 Altman was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the ''BMJ'', where he was credited by the editor, Fiona Godlee, with having "done more than anyone else to encourage researchers to fully report what they actually did, warts and all, rather than letting the best be the enemy of the good or, worse, pretending that research is perfect".<ref>[http://www.equator-network.org/2015/05/07/professor-doug-altman-awarded-bmj-lifetime-achievement-award/ Citation by Fiona Godlee, Editor, BMJ, May 2015]</ref>
Altman was also editor in chief of ''Trials'', a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Statistical Society.
== Personal life == Altman was born on 12 July 1948 in London to Jack and Decima Altman.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-255998|title=Altman, Prof. Douglas Graham, (12 July 1948–3 June 2018), Director, Cancer Research UK Medical Statistics Group, Oxford (formerly Head, Imperial Cancer Research Fund Medical Statistics Laboratory, London), since 1988; Professor of Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford, since 1998 (Founding Director, Centre for Statistics in Medicine, 1995–2016); Co-Director, Oxford Clinical Trials Research Unit, since 2012 (Director, 2005–12)|work=Who's Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=1 December 2018|accessdate=8 October 2020|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U255998|isbn=978-0-19-954089-1}}</ref> He died from bowel cancer<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Matthews |first1=Robert |last2=Chalmers |first2=Iain |last3=Rothwell |first3=Peter |title=Douglas G Altman: statistician, researcher, and driving force behind global initiatives to improve the reliability of health research |url=https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2588 |accessdate=8 October 2020 |date=June 2018 |journal=The BMJ |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=226–246 |pmid=32639065 |doi=10.1136/bmj.k2588|doi-access=free }}</ref> on 3 June 2018.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Grens |first1=Kerry |title=Medical Statistician Doug Altman Dies |url=https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/medical-statistician-doug-altman-dies-41887/ |accessdate=5 June 2018 |work=The Scientist}}</ref> He was survived by his wife Sue, and their children Louise and Edmund.<ref>{{cite news |title=OBITUARY: Celebrated statistician Doug Altman fought to improve medical research |url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/16304935.obituary-celebrated-statistician-doug-altman-fought-improve-medical-research/ |date=21 June 2018 |accessdate=8 October 2020 |work=Oxford Mail}}</ref>
== Books authored ==
*{{cite book|title=Practical Statistics for Medical Research|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780412276309|url-access=registration|publisher= Chapman & Hall|series=Monographs on Statistics and Applied Probability|year= 1991| first=Douglas G. |last=Altman|isbn= 978-1-58488-039-4|edition=first}} * ''Practical Statistics for Medical Research'' (1990). Douglas G. Altman {{ISBN|0-412-27630-5}}
=== Books edited ===
* ''Systematic Reviews in Healthcare: Meta-Analysis in Context'' (2001). Editors: Douglas G. Altman, Iain Chalmers, Gerd Antes, Michael Bradburn, Mike Clarke, Matthias Egger, George Davey Smith. {{ISBN|0-7279-1488-X}} * ''Statistics With Confidence: Confidence Intervals and Statistical Guidelines'' (2000). Editors: Douglas G. Altman, David Machin, T. N. Bryant, Martin J. Gardner. {{ISBN|0-7279-0222-9}} * ''Systematic Reviews'' (1999). Editors: Douglas G. Altman, Iain Chalmers. {{ISBN|0-7279-0904-5}} * ''Statistics in Practice: Articles Published in the British Medical Journal.'' (1982). Editors: Sheila M. Gore, Douglas G. Altman. {{ISBN|0-7279-0085-4}}
=== Peer-reviewed articles ===
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed&term=Altman+DG List of the over 800 articles by Doug Altman] available through PubMed.
* David M, Kenneth FS and Altman DG for the CONSORT Group. (2001) Revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel group randomized trials. ''Lancet'' 14, 1191–4. * Bland JM, Altman DG. (1986) Statistical methods for assessing agreement between 2 methods of clinical measurement. ''Lancet i'', 307–310. A reprint is available [http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~mb55/meas/ba.htm HERE] * [http://www.csm-oxford.org.uk/?o=1292 BMJ Statistical Notes] – A series of short articles on the use of statistics by Doug Altman and his longtime collaborator Martin Bland. * Altman DG, Bland JM. (1983) Measurement in medicine – the analysis of method comparison studies. ''The Statistician'' 32, 307–317. * Bland JM, Altman DG. (1999) Measuring agreement in method comparison studies. ''Statistical Methods in Medical Research'' 8, 135–160. * Bland JM, Altman DG. (1995) Comparing methods of measurement – why plotting difference against standard method is misleading. ''Lancet'' 346, 1085–1087.
==See also== *Julian Higgins *John Ioannidis *David Moher *George Davey Smith
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{Scholia|author}} * [http://hcr3.isiknowledge.com/author.cgi?=&id=2741&link1=Results Doug Altman's profile at ISI Highly Cited Researcher website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929111408/http://hcr3.isiknowledge.com/author.cgi?=&id=2741&link1=Results |date=29 September 2007 }} * [http://www.csm-oxford.org.uk/?o=1234 Doug Altman's profile at the Centre for Statistics in Medicine] * [http://www.consort-statement.org/ CONSORT Statement webpage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509205002/http://www.consort-statement.org/ |date=9 May 2019 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Altman, Doug}} Category:1948 births Category:2018 deaths Category:People from London Category:English statisticians Category:Alumni of the University of Bath Category:Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society Category:Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford Category:Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Category:Medical journal editors Category:British biostatisticians Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer in the United Kingdom Category:NIHR Senior Investigators