1.5. Do statisticians count?

In a soul-searching article, Andy Grieve (2002) asks the question whether statisticians count. Even though the number of statisticians working in the pharmaceutical industry has increased by 50-fold since the late 70's, Grieve felt that the influence statisticians had in their respective companies had not increased proportionally. Grieve looked at the barriers that prevented statisticians from contributing as much as they could and offered some solutions.

Particularly noteworthy is the assertion that it is statistician and not statistics that is important. Statistics, as a discipline, does not influence, does not persuade, does not design studies, does not analyze data, does not interpret findings, and does not report results. Statisticians are the ones who make the discipline meaningful by doing all of the above. In other words, statisticians, through their own behavior and communication, spread the statistical principles and promote the statistical thinking. So, when we discuss the successful use of statistics in drug development, we need to bear in mind that as statisticians working in the pharmaceutical industry, we need to be the champions for such cause through our passion for the statistics profession.