P.Mean: My old website (created 2009-10-20)
From about 1997 to 2008, I wrote webpages about statistics, research ethics, and evidence based medicine and published them at the Childrens Mercy Hospital (CMH) website:
When I left CMH, I lost the ability to write pages for this website. I also can no longer fix things that are broken at the old website. The navigation has always been a bit cumbersome at the old website, but my attempts to simplify the navigation have also ended.
CMH is still keeping my old website up and running, and I still send people to it when they have questions. I wanted to create a page here, though, that would include links to key pages at my old website. I also want to note those pages at my new website that are updates and corrections to pages at my old website.
There was a dispute about ownership of the webpages that erupted shortly before I left CMH. It would be best to consider anything written at my old website as holding a copyright through CMH for now, though I am hoping to convince CMH that I have the ability to use the pages that I wrote during the time of my employment however I please. In the meantime, if I reproduce any material from my old website at my new website, it is under the fair use provisions of the U.S Copyright laws.
Key pages at my old website
TopicList.asp. This is the backbone page for all the navigation through my old website and unfortunately it is not easily found from the main page. Every page (well almost every page) at my old website was assigned to one or two categories and I created category pages that showed all the pages within a given category. The TopicList page had links to all the individual categories. In theory, any page at my old website should be no more than two steps away from the TopicList page.
Training.asp. I offered several dozen different training classes at CMH. The handouts for these training classes are available at the Training.asp page.
Spreadsheets:
Pages at my old website that have been updated here.
Stats: Ethical concerns about a placebo run-in (created 2006-10-04). Dear Professor Mean, Some of the trials that our Institutional Review Board looks at have a placebo run-in period. All patients are given a placebo before the start of treatment and anyone who responds well to the placebo is dropped from the trial. What are the ethical ramifications of such a study. You can't disclose the placebo run-in period to the research volunteers because it would defeat the purpose. Updated 2010-02-04.
P.Mean: Integrating internal and external evidence (created 2006-03-17). Evidence based medicine involves the combining of the best available evidence with your clinical knowledge and the patient's individual values. A good article that emphasizes how this should be done is on the web at: Evidence-based decision making--the six step approach. Franz Porzsolt, Andrea Ohletz, Anke Thim, David Gardner, Helmuth Ruatti, Horand Meier, Nicole Schlotz-Gorton, Laura Schrott. Evid Based Med 2003: 8(6); 165-166.
Stats: Kaplan Meier (June 27, 2000). Dear Professor Mean, When I read my medical journals, I keep on coming across terms like "Kaplan-Meier Product Limit estimate" or "Kaplan-Meier survival curve." What do these terms mean and when are they used?
Stats: Patients' reactions to finding out they were in the placebo group (created 2005-05-11). A lot of people have written a lot of things about the use of placebos in research, but one group that hasn't been heard from nearly enough is the patients themselves. A recently published article has changed that trend.
Stats: A simple example of a Kaplan-Meier curve (January 24, 2008). In response to a query, I wanted to write up a simple example of how to calculate survival probabilities when you have censored data. It is adapted from Chapter 6 of my book, Statistical Evidence in Medical Trials. I have updated and simplified the example, for possible use in a second edition of the book, if I am so lucky.
Stats: When the F test is significant, but Tukey is not (created 2005-09-09). Someone asked me how to interpret a one factor analysis of variance where the overall F test was significant, but the Tukey folloup test comparing all four group means was not significant for any pair of means.
P.Mean: An introduction to diagnostic testing (created 2003-09-08). This page provides resources for a small booklet I have developed, "An introduction to diagnostic testing." I have printed a few of these booklets and attached a fully constructed version of the likelihood ratio slide rule. If you are teaching a class and want to incorporate this material, I am willing to offer a reasonable number of copies of this for free. In exchange, I'd like you to offer some feedback about this booklet. Eventually, I want to expand this into a larger project, possibly a book. If you want to download this material directly, please note that I have links to some of these resources.
What now?
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Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. This page was written by
Steve Simon and was last modified on
2010-04-09. Need more
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