Association recommends statistical soft ware training for members
NAN-HG-12
Training
Jos, Oct. 17, 2016 (NAN) The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has enjoined its members to embrace the use of statistical soft ware.
Mr Solomon Chollom, the Chairman of the association, National Veterinary Research Institute Chapter, gave the charge on the sidelines of a capacity building on Monday in Jos.
He said that hands-on training on the use of current statistical soft ware is paramount for scientists as it upgrades their capacity for greater impact in research and development.
Chollom told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the training would enable medical laboratory scientists avoid practicing blind research and coming out with half-baked or unusable findings.
“Scientists do not speak for their research findings; they allow the data to speak for itself scientifically which gives the research data voice and credibility.
“It is the duty of scientists to be acquainted with various statistical tools and the context of their application so as to make informed choice on application of each tool when the need arises.
“The training would enable scientists undertake research that will not just generate shelf only findings, but findings with far reaching impact to the scientific community as competent application of the statistical tools gives the scientists a prestigious stool of repute in the scientific community,” he explained.
However, he decried the gap in knowledge and application of statistical soft ware among most researchers, noting that it impedes the translation of information concealed in research data.
Chollom berated the existing trend where scientists are fixated on manual processes of statistical manipulations, stressing that it is “archaic, laborious, time wasting and error-prone”.
He therefore challenged scientists to upgrade in that direction by getting trained or acquainted with the current statistical software datas.
The chairman disclosed that the analysis of results and findings from research is one area that most research scientists refer to as the “monster of research” thereby seeking the services of statisticians to handle the aspect for them.
“This leaves the research at the mercy of the analysts such that when the research scientist is called upon to defend the analytical result he is at a loss,” he said. (NAN)
UBO/MST/MST
Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola