Doug Altman, In Memoriam

In memoriam: Doug Altman is Professor of Statistics in Medicine at the University of Oxford, Director of both the Centre for Statistics in Medicine and the Clinical Trials Research Unit at Oxford, and Director of the Cancer Research UK - Medical Statistics Group. He is a recent co-founder of the EQUATOR Network (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency Of Health Research). Professor Altman has carried out extensive research into the quality of health research methodology and reporting and has contributed significantly to the large body of evidence demonstrating widespread deficiencies in the reporting of health research, including, for example research on inadequate or selective reporting of clinical trials. His professional interests include the use and misuse of statistics in medical research, studies of prognosis, randomized trials, systematic reviews, and regression modelling. He is statistical advisor to the Cochrane Collaboration and the BMJ. Professor Altman is an executive member of several groups working on reporting guidelines, including CONSORT for randomized trials, QUOROM / PRISMA for systematic reviews, STROBE for epidemiological studies, and REMARK for tumor marker prognostic studies.