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Donald Szlosek

@dszlosek.bsky.social
1.3K followers 3.1K following 359 posts

Biostatistician @IDEXX. @johnshopkins. Formerly @harvardmed, @BIDMChealth, @nasa. Real-world evidence, clinical trials, diagnostic validation. CoOrganizer BostonR. Mainer. he/him.

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Reposted by Donald Szlosek
Noah Greifer @noahgreifer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Let's say I have a discrete 1-5 scale, and I want to model it with ordinal regression. Normally, this would involve estimating 4 threshold parameters. Let's say no one selects option 2. Should I retain the empty category and estimate its upper threshold? Or collapse to 4 levels w/ 3 thresholds?
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Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Curious aside: I drafted this letter in a cafe and on a train. On both occasions, the person sat next to me ended up talking to me about the content. They admitted reading the letter (over my shoulder!) and were surprised that scientists were using LLMs given the tendency for slop & hallucination.
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I imagine bot crawling, especially in the LLM world we live in now is going to further cause issues for open science
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Iván Díaz @idiaz.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
(1/22) Over the last few days I have been discussing the role of formal causal inference in RCTs, and in general the role of formalism and rigor in statistics in twitter with @f2harrell.bsky.social. Thread with an example for why both are fundamental for biomedical research:
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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I started my PhD program with an eight week old at home, sole income being my doctoral stipend, in a history program, in Knoxville, TN. And every month we got a new book to read to my son, free, mailed to us, so my kid, my kids, grew up in rooms full of books even when I had no money. That's Dolly.
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A huge thank you to @msftresearch.bsky.social for hosting us, and to everyone who showed up for the BostonR User Group at the Microsoft Research & Development Center! 🙌 It was a fantastic evening of learning, discussion, and connecting with others! #rstats #tmle #machinelearning
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Damie Pak @damiepak.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Boston useR group lightning talks is brat #rstats, #statistics, #Boston.
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Johns Hopkins Dept of Biostatistics @jhubiostat.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
We ae hiring an Assistant Professor: apply.interfolio.com/189113 We welcome candidates across the full breadth of biostatistics, including those whose work is grounded in classical & foundational biostatistical theory and methods, as well as those working in data science, machine learning, and AI.
NOW HIRING
Assistant Professor Position
(Review of applications will begin October 1, 2026)
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Such an amazing conference! Glad I got the opportunity to present a poster and meet such wonderful people! Blows my mind they accomplished this whole event starting March! #mlsky #datascience
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Ecstatic to be partnering with @posit.co and @microsft.bsky.social for our upcoming Boston R User Group Event! Lightning Talks Welcome!! RSVP: tinyurl.com/bostonRaug26 #rstats #statistics #datascience #Boston
tinyurl.com
Lightning Talks & Data Social Hour @ Microsoft, Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 5:00 PM | Meetup
**Lightning Talk & Data Social Hour @ Microsoft** We’re excited to bring the Greater Boston useR Group together for another in-person meetup! Join us at the **Microsoft N
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Saddened to hear of Lex Jansen’s passing. There was a time when much of what I knew about statistical programming came from lexjansen.com. Although I’ve since moved away from #SAS, his commitment to openness and knowledge sharing left a lasting impact on our community. He will be deeply missed.
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Excited to be joining my first JSM conference AND presenting at the STAI-X conference! Don't be a stranger and feel free to connect to grab some coffee! #rstats #statistics #jsm2026
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Lovely Set of #rstats color pallets: ltc-color-palettes
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I had the fortunate event of seeing this talk at @jhubb1995.bsky.social and cannot recommend it enough! AND it is hybrid!
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Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
TIME CHANGE! My farewell lecture on whether DAGs have fulfilled their promise has been moved to 1pm Eastern Time (6pm UK time) on Wednesday 15th July so it does not clash with England vs Argentina! I hope you can all still attend!
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
So Thankful for the MASSIVE turn out at our second event for the Greater Boston R User Group meeting! Outstanding Conversations from econometrics, to health equity / policy, to clinical trials and causal inference #rstats
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Demetri @phdemetri.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Man, I should put "numbers" in quotations more often. That hurts like a knife in the chest
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Looking forward to co-hosting the next Greater Boston useR Group meetup! Come join us! #Boston #rstats
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Is Repeated Bayesian Interim Analysis Consequence-Free? See this excellent conversation that has taken place over the past year at #datamethods tinyurl.com/fhdatamethods #StatsSky #Statistics #ClinicalTrials
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Demetri @phdemetri.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Who has a paper on why mediation analysis is bullshit / a legit thing we should do?
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Lukasz Olejnik @lukaszolejnik.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Physicist has written a fascinating big beautiful paper.Let’s not be afraid to call it what it is - groundbreaking. arxiv.org/abs/2603.21852
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Bill R aka N1VUX @bill-n1vux.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
@chrisstaecker.bsky.social Apropos of today's ⚽️🏟🏆 match, I'm trying to make a trigonometry joke for the sequence Wirtz, Havertz, Haversine, Sine but I'm just going around in unit circles
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Reposted by Donald Szlosek
Climate.us @climate.us · 26/06/2026
We got a big bump in traffic yesterday when people learned about us on NPR. Thank you to @npr.org for covering our launch and bringing our story to people's attention! And thank you to all our new followers. We can do this together! 🌍️🧪💪 #ClimateAction #ClimateForUs #ProtectScience
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
A thought came across my head today. I wonder if there would be appetite for scheduled debates on Bluesky around specific topics related to causal inference / AI / TMLE/ stats where where some experts offer to comment / reply for a limited amount of time #askacadmia #episkty #statssky
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Can't help but repost Gelman when he talks about Maine! 🫎 🦞 🫐
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Darren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
This paper is worth it for table 1 alone. 👏 @sabinehoffmann11.bsky.social @boulesteixlaure.bsky.social et al onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
When to Adjust for Multiple Testing: A Unifying Guiding Principle
Most original articles published in the medical literature report the results of multiple statistical tests. In a few simple cases, there is agreement on whether to adjust for the number of performed...
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Frank Harrell @f2harrell.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Excellent discussion Julia. @stephensenn.bsky.social would have a field day with this paper.
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Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 02/07/2026
Had to read this one to figure out whether it's as click-bait-y as the title. As somebody who has written a lot about causal inference with observational data, I'm quite conflicted about it.> asteriskmag.substack.com/p/the-case-a...
asteriskmag.substack.com
The case against randomized controlled trials
Everyone knows RCTs are the gold standard of evidence...right?
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Twin Piques is an absolutely diabolical name for this article by @stephensenn.bsky.social on the limitations/skepticism surrounding digital twins www.linkedin.com/pulse/twin-p...
linkedin.com
Twin Piques
..
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Frank Harrell @f2harrell.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Excellent new blog article by Steve Ruberg: analytixthinking.blog/2026/06/28/b... #Statistics #rct #pharma #clinicaltrial #StatsSky
analytixthinking.blog
No. 24: Estimands Part 1 – Just Do ITT?
Randomization and complete data on the randomized experimental units are needed for cause-and-effect inference. What happens when that logic is broken?
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Frank Harrell @f2harrell.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
#Statistics thought of the day: At the heart of much nonsense research lies data analysis (including machine learning) of a complexity that the effective sample size cannot support: hbiostat.org/hdata #StatsSky
hbiostat.org
Challenges of High-Dimensional Data Analysis
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
@kdoudrick.bsky.social What a wild ride to read: #academicsky @elsevierconnect.bsky.social
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Dr. Sandra Steingraber 🏳️‍🌈 @ssteingraber1.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Your reminder that fairy tales are full of stepmothers because women once routinely died in childbirth, from postpartum sepsis, or from other infectious diseases and left behind housefuls of motherless children. Stable nuclear families are made possible by vaccines, antibiotics, and safe abortions.
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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Remembering this WSJ graphic from 2007. Been thinking about "reverse statistics" lately, which means deriving the minimal set of assumptions that justify a result. Here I wonder if there is any function of the data that when max/min would produce such a curve. Ordinary Worst Squares?
Wall Street Journal graph from 2007 showing national corporate tax rates against tax revenue as percent of GDP. There is a curve drawn up and over the and down the other side of the points, but the curve is mainly outside the cloud of data.
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Andrew Gelman et al. @statmodeling.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
R wins statistics award. statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/06/17/5...
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu
R wins statistics award. | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Today I was reminded of a conversation with Terry Therneau at an R/Medicine conference some years ago (maybe 2019) where he told me a different version of the classic quote by George Box: “Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful”
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Department of Statistics @oxfordstatistics.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
👏 Our congratulations to Emeritus Professor Brian Ripley on being named a 2026 Rousseeuw Prize laureate. The award recognises the contributions of Professor Ripley and the international R Core Team to statistical computing worldwide. Find out more at tinyurl.com/yjhcj4ja
Portrait of Emeritus Professor Brian Ripley overlaid on a photograph of Oxford's Radcliffe Camera. Professor Ripley was named a 2026 Rousseeuw Prize laureate for his contributions to the R Project as part of the international R Core Team.
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
I just keep thinking...why not RMST?
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
I feel like every time a new editor joins a major journal there should be a public hearing like we do with FDA commissioners. #academicsky #episky
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I could not be happier to be a part of this wonderful group as a new co-organizer of the Boston R User Group! I’m excited to help restart this wonderful community along with @rachaeldempsey.bsky.social and @damiepak.bsky.social #rstats #statistics #rstats #boston
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I think about this figure from @stephensenn.bsky.social's Statistical Issues in Drug Development a lot (Ch. 7) alot. A useful reminder that baseline adjustment is often about precision not just “controlling for confounding.” #StatsSky #Statistics #EpiSky
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Honestly, Dawid and Skene's 1979 paper is one of the most captivating and well-written statistics papers I've ever read. It's remarkable that, nearly 50 years later, people are still discussing it, building on its ideas, and even finding inspiration in it to pursue statistics themselves.
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Andrew Gelman et al. @statmodeling.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
The Kappa Zoo: David Eubanks’s online monograph on rating models statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/05/28/t...
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu
The Kappa Zoo: David Eubanks’s online monograph on rating models | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
The basis of science is to have reproducible work. I would say the methods and results are the most important - everything else is just context
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
I was literally trying to find better ways to plot multivariate distributions a few weeks ago - outstanding
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Matthew Kling @matthewkling.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Announcing #RStats package ggcube, now on CRAN -- make 3D #ggplot2 figures using `coord_3d()` matthewkling.github.io/ggcube/
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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Okay now people are really making up symbols:
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Gary Collins @gscollins.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
*** NEW PAPER *** The CRT-Estimands Framework - a consensus based extension of the ICH E9(R1) addendum for cluster randomised trials - now been published in the @bmj.com. -> www.bmj.com/content/393/... + commentary in @jama.com -> jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... @unibirmingham.bsky.social
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