Harvard School of Public Health - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE

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Three Biostat students, and friend. computer specialists rather than the direct concern of the scientist who uses the statistics. In this way, the work of biostatistics is being simplified. It is even conceivable that at some time in the dim, distant future students in Biostatistics lab will never calculate a standard deviation. Instead, they will learn what a standard deviation is in¬ tended to measure and that there are machines that will produce values of the standard deviation from sets of data. On the other hand, the same computers that are relieving the scientist of the burdens of data proc¬ essing are presenting him with the need to develop increasing sophistication in the utilization of com¬ plex masses of material. In the past, the analysis of public health problems has been conveniently limited by practical restrictions on the amount of information available and the extent to which it could be analyzed. In the future, the comparative ease with which data can be collected and proc¬ essed will require increased clarity in the formu¬ lation of problems and corresponding selectivity in the utilization of statistics. Dr. Robert B. Reed Advanced Bio:tatistics class students (below) listen to Dr. Worcester (right) give one of her painstakingly prepared lectures on the mysteries of the chi-square. 17

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New Types of Leadership Robert H. Hamlin, Chairman E FFECTIVENESS in public health today re¬ quires far more than technical health training alone. New types of leadership are required— involving men and women with knowledge of the political, social and economis aspects of health and with the ability to work effectively at the critical centers of decision in problem areas. My central concern, and that of my colleagues in the Department of Public Health Practice, is to provide the training—through curriculum and teaching programs—and the new knowledge— through research—necessary to develop such wide¬ ly skilled leaders. A review of some of our departmental research activities illustrates the point. We are deeply en¬ gaged in studies of the problems of national health planning, particularly in developing coun¬ tries and examination of social, educational and economic consequences of the utilization of health services in Tunisia, studies of sociocultural fac¬ tors in the origin of—and in recovery from— Below— Dr. H. Jack Geiger, Miss Marjorie A. C. Young, Dr. Hamlin, Miss Beryl C. Magee and Dr. Arnold I. Kisch confer on curriculum matters.