ABSTRACT
Improved communication between biostatisticians and clinicians will help foster more productive collaborations, and this would help to make the process more smooth and enjoyable for all parties involved. In our survey among biostatisticians (Chapter 11), it was found that 78% of biostatisticians identified ‘communication between biostatisticians and clinicians’ as an issue to address in order to enhance greater collaborations. In this chapter, we provide practical suggestions and clear advice on how to enhance communication skills for biostatisticians, and this includes the specification of timelines, milestones and clarification of the allocation of tasks in a collaborative project. We start with the initial meeting with the collaborator, where important issues such as the scope of collaboration are discussed and established during the conversation. The use of a customised information collection sheet is recommended to document and help manage the expectations that can arise during the communication process and also to increase efficiency. Other unique contributions in this chapter include tips on presenting statistics effectively to a non-statistical audience, for example, through drawings, Venn diagrams and so on, as well as addressing difficulties in understanding medical jargon and acquiring good habits in statistical presentation (oral and poster). Towards the end of the chapter, links to useful online resources as well as an interview with an experienced researcher on improving the communication process with biostatisticians are presented.
