Development of a friendly, self-teaching, interactive statistical package for analysis of clinical research data. The BRIGHT STAT-PACK.

We have developed a new statistical analysis package for use by the clinical investigator, the clinician, and the laboratory researcher. This package attempts to implement the following philosophy: (1) The programs should be essentially self-teachaing, friendly, and forgiving; (2) the grograms should educate the user regarding the underlying theory, assumptions, and interpretation of the statistical methods involved; (3) the programs should automatically test relevant assumptions and warn the user when these assumptions appear to have been violated; (4) the programs should make recommendations about the availability of alternative statistical methods and automatically perform such analyses when indicated; (5) the programs should interpret the results; and (6) the programs should mimic, insofar as possible, the logic used in a routine, elementary statistical consultation. Several programs have been developed, extensively tested, and used.