Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 65


     
     1        Cancer Research Fund?
     2        A.  Yes.
     3
     4   Q.   I take it you are not a scientist by training?
     5        A.  As I said this morning, no, I am not.
     6
     7   Q.   I understand that.  You have no such -- perhaps you did
     8        some O Level physics or chemistry or something but nothing
     9        beyond that?
    10        A.  No, I did not do O Level physics or chemistry.  I have
    11        a degree including physiology which I do not think is
    12        relevant either. I am not a scientist.
    13
    14   Q.   You have a degree in physiology?
    15        A.  Yes.
    16
    17   Q.   Your role is, therefore -- I am not trying to demean it --
    18        your role is that of an educated or intelligent or both
    19        layman, is that right?
    20        A.  No, I would say that going back to the point that my
    21        Lord made this morning, I would say my expertise here is
    22        one of experience rather than formal qualification, yes.
    23        I have, nevertheless, spent the last 10 years chiefly
    24        concerned with the translation of science into public
    25        policy.  I am not quite sure what profession that puts me
    26        in.
    27
    28   Q.   It does not diminish your particular expertise.  I am only
    29        concerned to find out what specifically precisely it is.
    30        You are familiar, therefore, I take it, with the term meta
    31        analysis or meta study?
    32        A.  Yes.
    33
    34   Q.   That is, essentially, what you are concerned with when you
    35        say the translation of the results of one study or reports
    36        of another into what one might call public health policy?
    37        A.  No.
    38
    39   Q.   So what do you do?
    40        A.  Meta analysis is a technical term which is rather
    41        different from what these reports have done which I myself
    42        have analysed.  In the ordinary meaning of the word, yes,
    43        meta analysis would I guess do for that.  In the
    44        scientific world meta analysis is more concerned by means
    45        of very sophisticated mathematical techniques, assessments
    46        of the relative probability judged between large numbers
    47        of epidemiological studies taken together, which is an
    48        altogether a different exercise from the one I have been
    49        engaged in and, indeed, from the one that the committees
    50        of scientists who produced these reports are engaged in. 
    51 
    52   Q.   The committees of scientists to which you pay attention in 
    53        making what you call translations, what I might call
    54        summaries of the cumulative effect; is that fair?
    55        A.  Yes.
    56
    57   Q.   Is that rather a rapportaire, that kind of function?
    58        A.  Yes, I think that is a fair way of putting it.
    59        I think I have already drawn the analogy of a parallel
    60        between the work they do and the work done that is done in

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