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On June 1, 2019, I posted portions of an article [i],“There is Still a Place for Significance Testing in Clinical Trials,” in Clinical Trials responding to the 2019 call to abandon significance. I reblog it here. While very short, it effectively responds to the 2019 movement (by some) to abandon the concept of statistical significance [ii]. I have recently been involved in researching drug trials for a condition of a family member, and I can say that I’m extremely grateful that they are still reporting error statistical assessments of new treatments, and using carefully designed statistical significance tests with thresholds. Without them, I think we’d be lost in a sea of potential treatments and clinical trials. Please share any of your own experiences in the comments. The emphasis in this excerpt is mine:
Much hand-wringing has been stimulated by the reflection that reports of clinical studies often misinterpret and misrepresent the findings of the statistical analyses. Recent proposals to address these concerns have included abandoning p-values and much of the traditional classical approach to statistical inference, or dropping the concept of statistical significance while still allowing some place for p-values. How should we in the clinical trials community respond to these concerns? Responses may vary from bemusement, pity for our colleagues working in the wilderness outside the relatively protected environment of clinical trials, to unease about the implications for those of us engaged in clinical trials…. Continue reading
I will be giving an online talk on Friday, Feb 2, 4:30-5:45 NYC time, at a conference you can watch on zoom this week (Jan 30-Feb 2): Is Philosophy Useful for Science, and/or Vice Versa? It’s taking place in-person and online at Chapman University. My talk is: 
Error Statistics Philosophy 