ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the historical development of statistical teaching in UK medical schools concurrently with, and as a result of, changes in other related spheres. It considers some recent research on how today's doctors use statistics in their work and the value they place on statistical skills and discusses the issues surrounding the teaching and learning of statistics in medical school in the future. A conference of the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) discussed the teaching of statistics in 1979. This precipitated a series of annual meetings for statisticians from British medical schools, currently ongoing, named the 'Burwalls meetings' after the Bristol University properly at which they were first held. Since statistics became a subject in the medical curriculum the statistical needs of doctors have evolved both with the general trend of technology and with the changing role of the doctor.
