What Is Biostatistics?

In a recent article, Professor Marvin Zelen (1983) finds it difficult to make a strong case to classify biostatistics as a He proposes term biostatistical science and refers to it as the applications of statistics, probability and computing and mathematics to life sciences ... . While Professor Zelen correct in his description of biostatistical science, I do not share his difficulty in classifying biostatistics as a discipline. Admittedly, there nothing sacred in word discipline; we can all work contentedly in biostatistics whether or not it classified as such. What surprises me extent of difference that seems to exist between what described in Professor Zelen's article and what I understand to be biostatistics. According to article, all a biostatistician does application. He relies on statisticians to develop statistical theory and methods, on probabilists for probabilistic concepts, and on mathematicians for mathematics. A biostatistician need only look up appropriate formulas and ask computer to do computations. If this were true, then I could understand Professor Zelen's difficulty. What biostatistics? As I understand it, biostatistics a discipline that concerned with development and application of statistical theory and methods for study of phenomena arising in life sciences. Biostatistics as a discipline. Whether biostatistics or not a discipline depends on amount and quality of knowledge that has been developed and accumulated in field. I would not consider biostatistics a discipline prior to end of World War II. But biostatistics has experienced a drastic change during last 30 years. Prior to 1950, biostatistics was synonymous with health statistics, almost entirely descriptive in nature. Since then graduates with strong backgrounds in mathematical statistics and mathematics have entered field and treated biostatistical topics with a different attitude. Research emphasis shifted from descriptive statistics to development of a sound theoretical basis for field. Conventional topics in biostatistics were completely readdressed and restructured and new methods of analysis have been continually introduced. As a result, biostatistics today contains a respectable body of knowledge both in quality and quantity and built on a solid theoretical foundation. In words of Professor Bernard G. Greenberg (1983), this body of knowledge is transmissible by teaching, and subject to change resulting from research.