Blog Posts

The bitter lesson is true right now for clinical AI. And that’s ok.

Epistemology of Clinical AI

A new Nature Medicine paper compared two specialized clinical AI tools, OpenEvidence and UpToDate Expert AI, with several frontier general-purpose models (Vishwanath et al.…

Verification is faster than generation

AI is fast at producing and slow at knowing what you want. The leverage is verification. Pick one task this week with clear standards, run it through AI, and time yourself.

The Path to Useful and Trustworthy Clinical Prediction Models

Clinical Prediction Modeling

Clinical prediction modeling, using data to predict patients’ clinical outcomes and improve medical decision-making, can be incredibly powerful. Modern medicine is awash in…

External Controls in Oncology Clinical Trials

Causation & Clinical Trials

External controls are, for better or worse, common in pediatric oncology clinical trials. I don’t love them. They are dangerous. However, there are arguments in their favor.…

Gratitude reduces the complexity of modern life to make it more meaningful

Musings & Meditations

The world is increasingly filled with noise and nonsense, making it difficult to see what is valuable amid a torrent of trivialities. With the rise of social media, our…

The Epistemic Arc - a conceptual map about how to learn from data in the presence of uncertainty

Statistics & Heuristics

Learning from data is hard.

Pediatric cancer treatment abandonment: a tragic but preventable event

A tragic reality that pediatric oncology providers in resource-constrained commonly encounter: after a child with cancer starts treatment, many families leave and never…

How to measure anything in Global Health: 5. Calibration techniques

Data Science + Global Health

In my previous essay, I discussed how calibrating your judgments is a crucial step when measuring anything in global health.

How to measure anything in Global Health: 4. Calibrate your judgment

Data Science + Global Health

Your personal calibration is one of the most important measurement skills you’ve never heard of.

How to measure anything in Global Health: 3. The Definition of Risk

Data Science + Global Health

What are the chances that survival from a cancer decrease after introducing a new treatment in your clinic?

How to measure anything in Global Health: 2. The universal approach to measurement

Data Science + Global Health

If you want to use data to improve treatment delivery in global health, all of your measurements should support decisions.

How to measure anything in Global Health: 1. Foundations of Measurement

Data Science + Global Health

Can you measure the effect of adding a dietitian to your clinical service?

Distributed intelligence is the key to success for high-performing health systems in Global Health

Data Science + Global Health

Who would you rather have care for you: the world’s smartest doctor in a poorly-function health system or a mediocre doctor in a high-functioning health system?

Stochastic beasts and how to slay them - Part 1

Confident Uncertainty

What do the Balrogs, huge earthquakes, and nuclear war have in common?

Understanding the two types of uncertainty will help you live more confidently in a stochastic world

Confident Uncertainty

We live in a complex and often chaotic world. To live confidently, we have to know how to navigate uncertain paths.

Data science is a saddle for the epistemic rodeo: healthcare as a complex system

Data Science + Global Health

Healthcare is complicated. Healthcare is also complex. To use data science to improve treatment delivery in low-resource settings, it is important to understand in what way…

Let the data flow: how to move information to the people who need it in a Global Health organization

Data Science + Global Health

If a health facility is adequately staffed with doctors, nurses, and other providers, and it is well supplied with medicines and medical equipment, then it has everything it…

Three essential quality control practices to improve the reliability of Data Science in Global Health

Data Science + Global Health

Quality control (QC) of data is a grind, particularly for healthcare facilities with paper charts requiring manual collection. QC takes dedicated effort sustained over the…

Aristotle’s sage advice to improve Data Science in Global Health

Data Science + Global Health

Aristotle, the legendary Greek philosopher, has some advice for anyone trying to use data science in global health.

How to walk the unsexy path toward sophisticated Data Science in Global Health: Data Management

Data Science + Global Health

Data science has a data problem.

Data Science has a garbage problem

Data Science + Global Health

Data science has a data problem.

10 ways Global Health organizations can use routine data to improve patient care

Data Science + Global Health

Global Health needs Data Science because efficient and effective healthcare delivery is the key to success.

A simple method to monitor a catchment area and improve disease diagnosis rates

Data Science + Global Health

In a recent article, I argued that Global Health needs Data Science. Now I want to give an easily implemented example of how Data Science capabilities can improve treatment…

Three Steps To Improve How You Measure Patient Outcomes

Data Science + Global Health

Survival outcomes are perhaps the most important metric to measure in most Global Health treatment centers.

Three Reasons Global Health needs Data Science

Data Science + Global Health

Global Health needs Data Science.

The single best way to cure more childhood cancers

The best way to cure more childhood cancers is to develop better treatments, Right?

S-Values - Part 1

Statistics & Heuristics

Imaging you find a coin on the ground. Ever the thrifty type, you are delighted to find this treasure, so you pick it up and give it three celebratory flips. You notice it…

The Winner’s Curse

Statistics & Heuristics

When reading a study, have you ever found yourself skeptical of the “statistically significant” findings for reasons you can’t quite identify? You’ve read the methods…

The Global Childhood Cancer Puzzle - Edge 1.3

The Global Childhood Cancer Puzzle - Edge 1.2

The Global Childhood Cancer Puzzle - Edge 1.1