Statistics is important in medical misconduct cases

Robust statistical reasoning is vital in the courtroom, as historical cases have shown.Take, for example, the case of Sally Clark, who became the victim of a miscarriage of justice when she was convicted of the murder of her two infant sons, based on flawed statistical evidence. 1 2The case was one of the motivations for a decades long collaboration between statisticians, forensic scientists, and lawyers that aimed to educate those working in legal systems internationally on the importance of data interpretation.These combined efforts led to new codes of conduct and improved best practice guidance on presenting forensic statistical evidence in courts. 3 -6 Unfortunately, these approaches tend to only be used for the interpretation of specific types of forensic evidence, but they should be applied to all forms of evidence, including medical.Statistics is the science of reasoning under uncertainty.It provides the essential logical framework for collecting relevant data and drawing robust and valid conclusions from these data at all stages of the legal process.Cases in which healthcare professionals are suspected of killing or harming patients pose particular challenges because there is the additional consideration of whether a patient's death or injury is the result of misconduct or another cause.In a 2022 report, the Royal Statistical Society described these difficulties and provided key recommendations for dealing with statistics in medical misconduct cases generally. 7The report highlights three specific challenges.