The second generation of the software was reviewed in general medical[1] and public health journals.

The function library includes common medical statistical methods that can be extended by users via an XML-based description that can embed calls to native StatsDirect numerical libraries, R scripts, or algorithms in any of the .NET languages (such as C#, VB.Net, J#, or F#).

For example, users can perform a chi-square test on a two-by-two table, but they are asked whether the data are from a cohort (perspective) or case-control (retrospective) study before delivering the result.

[4] Professor Iain Buchan, formerly of the University of Manchester, wrote a doctoral thesis on the foundational work and is credited as the creator of the software.

[3] StatsDirect reports embed the metadata necessary to replay calculations, which may be needed if the original data is ever updated.