Continuing professional development

Medical statisticians need to continue their personal and professional development. This can be done in several ways.

Most universities offer staff development programmes in which you may take short courses on almost anything, including computing software, presentational skills, management development and teaching skills. Even if you do not work in a university, at least some courses of a similar nature are likely to be available.

You will usually be encouraged to submit papers or abstracts about your work to conferences (medical or statistical) and then attend them; you may have the opportunity to present your own papers, and you will be able to attend other paper presentations. Many conferences also have workshops in which you can participate. You are also likely to be encouraged to write up aspects of your work as formal papers for academic journals.

Your professional work as a statistician might well make it appropriate for you to seek the professional qualification of Chartered Statistician (CStat), which would give you a professional affiliation with the Royal Statistical Society.