Author Archives: pmean

Recommended: Qualifications for Teaching an Introductory Statistics Course

The American Statistical Association and the Mathematical Association of America published a joint statement on the qualifications that a college teacher would need in order to teach an introductory statistics course for undergraduate students. This is an issue in many Mathematics Departments which might need to teach such a class but would not be big enough to have a degreed Statistician. A minimum amount of course work is needed, but also practical experience with data analysis, which might come from “advanced courses, projects, consulting, or research.” Continue reading →

PMean: NIH is interested in big data

The National Institutes of Health has shown a recent interest in “big data.” You can define big data in several ways, but a common characteristic is the three V’s. Big data takes up a lot of space (volume) and/or it comes at you very rapidly (velocity) and/or it comes in a wide range of differing formats (variety). One of the recent Requests for Applications (RFAs) from NIH spells out what types of research into big data that they are interested in seeing. I might be interested in applying, and would love to find some collaborators. Here’s a summary of what the RFA is all about. Continue reading →

PMean: How many months should you wait before re-testing?

I got a question that I had never heard before, and it sort of is a statistics question and sort of isn’t. A researcher was comparing two methods of training residents in a particular surgical procedure and wanted to know how long you should wait between the training and the evaluation of whether that training was effective. Continue reading →

Recommended: Why Coincidences, Miracles And Rare Events Happen Every Day.

This is an interview with David Hand, the author of a new book, The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles and Rare Events Happen Every Day. The discussion raises the issue of events that seem highly improbable based on a simple probability calculation, but which nevertheless, are not that uncommon. Continue reading →

PMean: Summary of my research interest in patient accrual in clinical trials.

My boss at UMKC (I’m part-time at UMKC and part-time independent statistical consultant) asked me for one of those “summarize the research you’ve been working on” so she could mention all the work being done by our Department for a talk she’s giving. Recently, I’ve been focused almost exclusively on one thing, and although she knew it very well, I sent her a summary anyway. Then, I thought, why not share the same summary on my blog. Maybe you’re curious or maybe you might be interested in collaborating. So here’s my summary about my work on Bayesian models for patient accrual in clinical trials. Continue reading →