Soliloquy of the Nameless
17 min
3448 words
Stories
The rail separates the pine grove steeped in haze from the serene lake, which stretches to the base of a mountain barely visible beyond the winter haze, the apparition of a white …
Blog
Biology, medicine, and maybe some computer science.
Founders of EBM
3 min
631 words
When reading papers and textbooks, the following figures appear most repeatedly. SackettSackett was one of the founders of EBM. Contributions include several seminal RCTs showing …
Lessons from Basic Statistics for Clinician: Hypothesis Testing
2 min
324 words
Uncertainty comes with a study of modest power (too small a sample size to rule out chance)—one that does not produce a result below the 0.05 significance threshold but may still, …
Pharmaceutical Companies and Misleading Claims in the Literature
2 min
408 words
Medicine
I remember reading somewhere—I forget where—that these companies will often publish their material in-house (i.e. rather than going to an independent, well-established journal, …
Grading Drugs Within a Class: Level 1-2 of Evidence
3 min
460 words
Medicine
JAMA Literature Series
The paper1 categorizes levels of evidence for comparison of drugs within a class from 1-4, each with unique threats to validity. Levels 3 and 4 will be discussed later. Superiority …
Assuming the Drug Class Effect
2 min
384 words
Medicine
JAMA Literature Series
It is understood, broadly speaking, that drugs of the same class confer the same merits/risks, though one may be more efficacious and safer than the other. The drug class paper …
Surrogate endpoints in clinical trials
3 min
570 words
Medicine
JAMA Literature Series
Surrogate endpoints are endpoints that are not directly related to the clinical outcome of interest but are used as a substitute for it. They are often used in clinical trials to …
JAMA on how to read clinical trials
6 min
1149 words
Medicine
JAMA Literature Series
There’s a series from JAMA that goes over how to read clinical trials. The series is written by individuals who are widely recognized in the field of evidence-based medicine. …
Ethical Considerations: Sham Surgeries
4 min
788 words
Medicine
Sham surgeries are procedures that mimic real surgeries but do not include the critical therapeutic component. They are often used in clinical trials to serve as one of the …
RSS Feeds
1 min
135 words
Medicine
So far I’ve subscribed to a couple journals and some blogs. Here’s a partial list: CDC MMWR Phase 3 and 4 clinical trials from: BMJ NEJM The Lancet Blogs from: Sensible …