A History Of Chinese Medical Statistics (1949-2012)

Medical statistics has been recognized as a branch of statistics that applies statistics to biomedicine. It is a science including the design, collection, organization, analysis and interpretation of biomedical data, which are based on the combination of the practical issues in medicine and the basic principles and methods of probability theory and mathematics statistics. Because there are individual variations between organisms, people are different in their reactions to the combined effect of various factors in thousands of ways. Correspondingly, statistical methods are needed to explore the characteristics of its laws.The development of statistics as a discipline has been around for more than one hundred years in China. Starting in the 1920s, medical statistics in China began to develop gradually. In 1948, "Statistical methods in medical and biological sciences" written by Prof. Zuchao Guo was published, which marks that the discipline of medical statistics is formally established in our country. Before liberation, medical statistics developed very slowly. However, with the continuously development of medicine and scientific research, medical statistics has enjoyed an extraordinary achievement and rapid development since liberation.The history of medical statistics in China is over sixty years as a discipline, but the research of historical documents is not sufficient. So far, few systematic historical researches of medical statistics were published. Therefore, it is very important to summarise the history of Chinese medical statistics in the process of establishment and development. In order to make systematical study on the history and its feature, this thesis foucus on the following four areas:the disciplinary development of medical statistics; construction work on the Chinese Association of Health Informatics (CAHI); teaching materials construction of medical statistics; and a list of some experts who have made contributions to the development of medical statistics.By means of expert interview and investigating the related literatures and documents, this study showed the history of the progressive development of Chinese medical statistics, and the brilliant achievements as well.In the first part of this study, we conclude that the development of Chinese medical statistic has experienced a tortuous process. In the second part, we find that the historical development of CAHI reflects the progressive development of Chinese medical statistics on some level. The history of teaching material construction is very much like a mirror, reflecting the history of medical statistics. In the last part, we devide the Chinese medical statisticians into four generations according to different age section. We focus on some experts who are the representatives of the first and second generation.Compared with former fragmentary and scattered studies, our study is more systematical and detailed. Through researching Chinese history of medical statistics, we may gain the precious experience and the lesson that can be remembered. And then, we could provide the beneficial model and instruction for the development of medical statistics.