This is the official website of SNTL,

the statistical consulting part of Nick Longford's professional activities.

Established: January 2001. Web presence: June 2004.


Email: sntlnick @ SNTL . co . uk

On 30th November 2021, I left the job at School of Public Health,
Imperial College London, UK

and reverted to operating as a statistical consultant (self-employed),
with a principal engagement

in the Data Science Division, Marks and Spencer plc, London, UK
(from 4th January 2021 till 31st December 2022)

Also: National Neonatal Audit Programme (RCPCH)


BOOKS:

  • Appeared in March 2021: Statistics for Making Decisions (Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2021).

    NTL
    With the motto:
    The rightful place of the hypothesis test is in a science museum, right next to the steam engine.


    Statistical Studies of Income, Poverty and Inequality in Europe: Computing and Graphics in R using EU-SILC
    (Chapman and Hall/CRC, New York, 2014).

    Supporting materials (R code)


    Statistical Decision Theory
    (Springer-Verlag, New York, 2013).

    Supporting materials (R code)


    Supporting materials for Studying Human Populations.An Advanced Course in Statistics
    (Springer-Verlag, New York, 2008).


    SNTL business - areas of expertise:

  • causal inference in observational studies (the potential outcomes framework)

  • decision theory

  • small-area estimation

  • incomplete (missing) data

  • longitudinal analysis

  • statistical modelling (including addressing model uncertainty)

  • statistical computing and graphics in R

  • analysis of very large datasets (including surveys) and data mining

  • analysis of small datasets for which maximum likelihood is inefficient;
    - using prior information and incorporating the consequences of errors

  • design of surveys and other studies

  • clinical trials (beyond hypothesis testing)

  • being an expert witness (civil and criminal law)



    Applications in:

  • clinical medicine, epidemiology & biostatistics

  • technical (statistical and data-based related) audit

  • local and central government statistics

  • statistics in civil and criminal law

  • pharmaceutical research and development

  • data science in the service of children and young people
    (including: health care utilisation during the pandemic)
    realising the potential of the Whole Systems Integrated Care database


    • Business perspective

    Statistics is the business and science of making intelligent decisions
    in the presence of uncertainty and constrained by limited resources

    It is a study of how decisions should be made,
    as opposed to how they tend to be made.

    My mission is to serve the best interests of my clients, as regards data-
    related information and decisions, just like the medical profession serves
    the best interests of the patients as regards their health and welfare,
    and the legal profession serves the best interests of their clients
    as regards the civil and criminal law.

    A photo and motto


    • To appear

    Mortality analysed by propensity score matching: an application to national neonatal audit.
    In Brazilian Journal of Biometrics 41.

    Current projects

    The potential outcomes framework for problems with or without causal agenda

    Regression as a second-rate alternative to propensity matching

    The full research potential of an administrative database

    Use of opiods and sedative in neonatal abdominal surgery


    Recent whereabouts (virtual)

    58th Conference of Statisticians, Econometricians and Mathematicians from Southern Poland;
    Katowice, Poland, April 2022.

    2nd International Coference on Data Science and Official Statistics;
    Jakarta, Indonesia, November 2023.


    Further back in time (and details)


    November 2023