Douglas G Altman: statistician, researcher, and driving force behind global initiatives to improve the reliability of health research

With the passing of Doug Altman, professor of statistics in medicine at the University of Oxford, the health research community has lost one of its most distinguished members and constructive critics. From the 1970s he conducted original research in fields ranging from neonatal growth to cancer, provided statistical expertise to countless clinical trials and journals, and served as The BMJ ’s chief statistical adviser for more than 20 years. He was also an indefatigable critic of shoddy research practices and did more than anyone else to eliminate them. He sought to drive up standards by every means at his disposal, from lucid lectures and educational papers to global initiatives and research guidelines. Doug consequently became one of the most highly cited researchers in any scientific discipline, with more than 360 000 Google Scholar citations and an h-index of 208, but more importantly, his work helped prevent the unnecessary deaths and suffering of countless patients. Anyone who knew Doug can imagine him looking down at this point, wishing the encomium would cease. Modest about his abilities and achievements (“All that citation index stuff is complete bollocks, of course”), quick to credit others, and always approachable, he was not typical of the academic establishment. Indeed, he had little time for the establishment, regarding it as complicit in the persistence of poor research. Born in London into a middle class family of Jewish descent in 1948, Doug had a largely solitary childhood. …