Data and Decision Making

The basis for decision making in biotechnology is often the analysis of data. For these decisions to be reliable data must be correctly collected and analysed. To control costs data should be efficiently collected and it needs to be properly stored and managed. The interpretation of an analysis requires some knowledge of basic statistical ideas and techniques, and the results will often be communicated to a non-specialist audience who will make decisions based on the presentation. Alternatively, decisions may be made from the analyses and interpretations of others. This subject examines the whole process of data collection, analysis and decision making.