Challenges faced by Medical Statisticians in India during Covid 19 Lockdown

Biostatisticians interact a lot with clinical researchers, mostly face to face, to understand the study, its objectives and parameters, as well as to explain the findings. With restrictions of lockdown and social distancing practices, many of the researchers were unable to meet the statistician in person during the lockdown. It could have been challenging for a statistician to understand the process, terminology or the dataset without detailed, face-to-face interaction with the researcher, especially in multi-disciplinary studies or studies involving large and/or multiple datasets. This data describes such challenges faced by statisticians during the lockdown. Both Excel and SPSS files have been uploaded.

Data was collected using an online survey platform, from registered members of a society for medical statisticians in India. Members were invited to participate in the study through e-mail and participation was completely voluntary. Informed consent was also taken online. 106 statisticians responded to the mail and two of them did not consent, so the results pertain to 104 participants. Data for this study was collected during the 4th phase of the lockdown in India.

Data are mainly categorical. The data collected includes the details about the preferred method of interaction of statisticians, the methods of interaction adopted during statistical consultations before and during lockdown, challenges or difficulty faced during lockdown, level of satisfaction and willingness to adapt to new methods of interaction.

Statistical consultation is defined in this study as data analysis, designing a study, sample size calculation and reviewing protocols.