Statistics: a brief overview.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education sets forth a number of required educational topics that must be addressed in residency and fellowship programs. We sought to provide a primer on some of the important basic statistical concepts to consider when examining the medical literature. It is not essential to understand the exact workings and methodology of every statistical test encountered, but it is necessary to understand selected concepts such as parametric and nonparametric tests, correlation, and numerical versus categorical data. This working knowledge will allow you to spot obvious irregularities in statistical analyses that you encounter.