A matter of perspective

ENAR

In a family of medical doctors, she is a statistician. A former Lebanese University professor, Maral Tutelian has been at the helm of Lebanon’s Central Administration of Statistics for nearly 15 years — influencing public, business and societal decisionmaking through quality-driven data.   Policymaking depends upon reliable statistics; do you consider CAS’ role in providing data particularly influential for decisionmakers today in creating their policies? It’s really a very, very interesting question. It’s not only in Lebanon, but in the whole region and in other countries like Lebanon. We have luck in the statistical culture.   ‘Luck in the statistical culture’, what does that mean? It means we should implement the use of statistics in our culture. It means that every decision should be based on statistics. Statistical data should be used by all stakeholders. You cannot [formulate] a political decision related to health if you don’t base your policies