Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W G Cochran.
An accounting is made of twenty years' experience with a triangular flap method of cleft lip repair using a 60 degree tip angle. The inherent difficulty in standardizing the method to ensure a perfect length has been overcome by reducing the problem to a mathematical one--with a mathematical solution. A cleft lip pattern has been designed to facilitate and ensure an accurate end result.
In multi-clinic studies it is hard to maintain a uniformly high quality of measurement and coding. Systematic errors almost always occur, in spite of the best of intentions and the most rigid protocols. It is the statistician's responsibility to plan for the detection of these errors, as well as to try to avoid them and not be misled by them. The practice of examining the univariate and multivariate sample frequency distributions of the variables under study, with an eye open for anything that looks puzzling, can be very helpful in detecting and trying to correct systematic errors that would bias the analysis. Examples are given from a 21-clinic study on pregnancy and child development.
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