After a short pause while brain cells were diverted elsewhere, we’re returning with the critically acclaimed (well, slightly positively tweeted) StatsMiniBlog series. (As an aside – do let me know via comments, Facebook or Twitter if there’s an issue you’d like to see covered) Kappa (κ) is a measure of agreement, usually between two observers […]
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“Compared to standard care”
There’s a decent argument in the analysis of quantitative studies of therapies, particularly using RCT designs, that says that we should be looking at the totality of unbiased evidence (systematic reviews) rather than looking at individual, cherry-picked, studies. The best estimate from this come from a pooling of all the results: meta-analysis. There’s a challenge to this, […]
A Message To Paediatricians
The Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum, an “expert group” formed to advise the English governmental agencies on improving heath outcomes for folk from before their birth to 25 years old, held a summit in June and were addressed by a number of young people who had used health services in different ways. One of […]
The despair of the box-ticking paediatrican
So, as the annual assessment of learning by paediatric trainees reached fever pitch in many ares of the UK, a question rang out across Twitter: In (trainees approaching ARCP), does (shoehorning logbook to curriculum) compared to (reflecting on clinical experiences) improve outcomes? And while this, I feel, is more of an emotional outpouring to garner […]
Naming of Reviewers
Peer review has controversies. There are numerous criticisms, but when it comes down to it, to paraphrase Churchill on democracy, it’s the worst way of doing it, except for all the others. I don’t want to discuss the whole process of peer review here, except to state that when we publish something, because we’re not […]
(Not) A minion
There is a temptation as a junior doctor to refer to oneself as “just a minion”. This is particularly true of FY1s/residents, but it persists a fair way up the food chain. After all, we just go around obeying orders and doing as we’re told, right? WRONG. A junior doctor tends to be the first […]
Parity of esteem
Lots of my clinical work, with children and young people with cancer, requires the team I work with to understand physical and psychological elements of a young person, and their family’s, health. I also know, mainly from working groups and Twitter, that there is a statutory requirement to work to parity of esteem for […]
What’s in a number? (Part 2)
A quick task. Grab a sheet of paper or open a blank screen on your computer. Write down: Your phone number Your partners or a family members phone number Your National Insurance Number The sort code from your primary bank account Your NHS Number How did you do? Were you able to remember them all? […]
What’s in a number?
Here’s a brief summary of a question put to me by Vin Diwakar, stimulated by the Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum Summit 2014, and my response. Importantly, in the original discussion I made an error; the NHS number does in fact have a check number. For more info, and an explanation, read on. The […]
StatsMiniBlog: Rethinking meta-analysis
The concept of meta-analysis was addressed previously, essentially pulling together data from a range of different studies and assuming that they are only (fundamentally) different by chance, or differ by real things too as well as chance, and you’re seeking an average effect across the average of these differences. The maths under this takes each study as […]