Praise for Tom’s workshop on interpreting and reporting statistics

“Thank you for making statistics understoodable!” From a physician at Sichuan Medical University, Chengdu, China

The course was far more interesting and accessible than I anticipated. I would take another course from Mr. Lang and recommend my colleagues do the same. From an American Medical Writers Association conference

Excellent workshop – better than all of my grad school stat classes. From a physician-researcher at the Cleveland Clinic

Brilliant! Tom’s command of the subject is amazing. The value of this workshop is priceless . . . From a student at the University of Chicago’s course on statistics for medical writers and editors

This [statistics] workshop was well thought out and very well led. Tom made an intimidating topic very approachable, and he was organized, kept things moving, and was very clear. Thank you!! From a European medical writer

I do not know of anybody who could have explained this material to this level of detail and audience understanding. Amazing! Thank you! From a Japanese researcher

It was perfectly focused for the target audience – it was just what I needed for a basic understanding of the statistics I run into at work. From a medical writer in the pharmaceutical industry

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Tom Lang

• Former Manager, Medical Editing Services, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation

• Former Senior Scientific Writer, New England Cochrane Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, New England Medical Center

• Participant, CONSORT, MOOSE, and PRISMA standards-setting groups

• Past President, Council of Science Editors

• 2002 Excellence in Continuing Education Award, American Statistical Association

• Golden Apple Award, Outstanding Workshop Leader, American Medical Writers Association

• 2002 Harold Swanberg Distinguished Service Award for contributions to medical communications, American Medical Writers Association

• MA, Communications Management, Annenberg School for Communication, USC

[Link to Vitae]

Professional Biography for Tom Lang, MA

Tom has been a technical or medical writer/editor since 1975. From 1990 through 1998, he was Manager of Medical Editing Services for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. Since leaving the Clinic, he has been a Senior Scientific Writer in the Division of Clinical Care Research at the New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and is now an independent consultant and trainer in medical writing and scientific communications.

Specializing in critical appraisal and the reporting of biomedical research in scientific journals, he is the author of How to Report Statistics in Medicine: Annotated Guidelines for Authors, Editors, and Reviewers, 2nd edition (Philadelphia: American College of Physicians, 1997) and How to Write, Publish, and Present in the Health Sciences: Guidelines for Clinicians and Laboratory Researchers(Philadelphia: American College of Physicians, 2010).  Other publications address research into written communication, theory-based patient education materials, and measures of the productivity and value-added of medical writers.

He has led hundreds of workshops on various aspects of medical writing and editing, written communication, and scientific publications for physicians, researchers, and medical writers in academia and industry throughout North America, Europe, China, Japan, India, and Africa.  He has been recognized as an outstanding teacher by the American Medical Writers Association, from whom he received the 1994 Golden Apple Award for Outstanding Workshop Leader; by the American Statistical Association, who presented him with its 2002 Excellence in Continuing Education Award; and by the Graham School of General Studies, University of Chicago, who awarded him its First Excellence in Teaching Award in 2005.

He has also taught courses for the University of Chicago's Medical Writing Certificate Program since its inception in 1999 and is Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Writing at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, the nation’s oldest college of pharmacy.

He has taught for the European Medical Writers Association and the Canadian Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and has been a visiting scholar at several medical universities throughout China since 1996.  In Japan, he regularly presents to the Drug Information Association, the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers, the Japanese Medical Interpreters and Translators Association, and the Japanese Medical Communicators Association.

He is a Fellow of the American Medical Writers Association, a Past President of the Council of Science Editors, and Treasurer of the World Association of Medical Editors.  His master's degree is in Communication Management, with a specialization in scientific communication, from the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California.