The use of Stata in biostat teaching

Stata is a software package that is currently widely used, and its utility is being recognized. This is leading to its increasing use worldwide in major departments of epidemiology and biostatistics, for both research and teaching purposes. The ability to use it at various levels of sophistication makes it an ideal package for introductory courses, where one is most likely to experience naïve users, as well as for researchers who tend to be more experienced and demanding in their requests for more esoteric calculations. The purpose of this talk is to describe how teaching at basic and intermediate levels of biostatistics, especially in epidemiological courses, has been facilitated during the years through the use of Stata, both how the package has grown and how this has impacted what can reasonably be taught in these courses. That is not to say that there is not room for improvement; I will also discuss some potential areas for progress and expansion.