Doug Altman: A good one gone …

Doug Altman, a professor of statistics at the University of Oxford, died June 3, 2018. Some of his achievements from the Orbituary in The Scientist [1] and Cochrane Library [2]:

  • 1986: Publication of Bland-Altman plot, an incredibly popular technique to visually compare two different methods of taking clinical measurements. According to Nature in 2014, their paper is the 29th most-cited of all time.
  • 1993: Doug Altman was a Cochrane leader and pioneer since the Collaboration’s beginning in 1993.
  • 2006: cofounded the EQUATOR Network (which stands for Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research
  • 2015: BMJ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, among other things, he contributed multiple statistical tutorials to the incredible popular statistics notes series in the BMJ
  • 2018: he authored over 450 papers in statistical methodology, with 11 being cited more than 1,000 times

“Hearing the loss of a widely-respected Cochrane friend, Editor in Chief, David Tovey said: “Doug was one of the most revered of Cochrane’s leaders, but he was also immensely approachable, warm and engaging. His contribution to Cochrane and to the science of research reporting were immense, and characterized by this affability, linked to a steely determination to improve the quality of published research.”[2]

RIP!

[1] https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/medical-statistician-doug-altman-dies-41887

[2] http://community.cochrane.org/news/memoriam-doug-altman