Martin Bland is a distinguished British statistician renowned for his transformative contributions to medical statistics and health research methodology. He served as Professor of Health Statistics at the University of York from 2003 until becoming Professor Emeritus in 2015, following 27 years of academic service at St. George's Hospital Medical School, University of London. Born in Stockport on March 6, 1947, Bland completed his mathematical education at Imperial College, London, earning his MSc in Mathematical Statistics and Operational Research in 1969, followed by a Diploma of Imperial College in 1970, and later obtained his PhD in epidemiology from the University of London in 1980. His career began with industry experience at ICI Plant Protection Ltd. before transitioning to academic medicine, where he established himself as a leading authority in statistical methodology for clinical research.
Professor Bland is internationally recognized for developing the Bland-Altman plot with Douglas Altman, which has become the gold standard methodology for assessing agreement between two clinical measurement techniques. His seminal 1986 Lancet paper on statistical methods for assessing agreement between clinical measurement methods has been cited over 28,000 times, making it the most cited paper in the journal's history and one of the 30 most highly cited papers ever published. Bland has authored the influential textbook An Introduction to Medical Statistics, now in its fourth edition, and co-authored Statistical Questions in Evidence-based Medicine, both published by Oxford University Press. His research has fundamentally transformed how clinical measurements are validated and compared, establishing rigorous statistical frameworks that have become standard practice in medical research worldwide.
As co-author of the long-running Statistics Notes series in the British Medical Journal with Douglas Altman, Bland has significantly shaped statistical practice in medical literature for decades. His methodological contributions extend to cluster randomised trials and measurement error analysis, with more than 290 refereed journal articles demonstrating his sustained impact on research methodology. Recognized as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in 2007 and recipient of the National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator Award in 2008, Bland continues to influence the field through his emeritus role at the University of York, where he remains active in supporting postgraduate research and collaborating on clinical trials. His enduring legacy lies in establishing rigorous statistical standards that ensure the reliability and validity of medical measurements, a contribution that continues to safeguard the quality of clinical research globally.
