A prototype statistical advisory system for biomedical researchers I: overview

Abstract A prototype for a statistical advisory system has been developed to explore the possibilities of providing assistance to biomedical researchers who lack the statistical expertise to apply appropriate methods for group mean comparisons. The components of the system are a statistical inference machine, an object-oriented statistical taxonomy and a dynamic multi-window interface, all programmed in LISP. The advisory system is coupled to PROPHET, a National Institutes of Health molecular biology computer resource familiar to many biomedical researchers, which provides the statistical algorithms and graphics capabilities. The objective of the system is to guide the biomedical researcher who is a not an expert in statistics to appropriate methods, to flag potential pitfalls in applying statistical methods, and to suggest alternative statistical directions, including consulting with a statistician.