The dream dplyr update for my data cleaning pipelines 😍 filter_out() is going to be SO nice, no longer will I need to wrangle with annoying is.na() conditions replace_values() and recode_values() also going to be a dream too, go read the post! #rstats

A visit to a #hospital #emergencyroom is stressful enough. But to be there for hours on end? That doesn't make it easier. See how long the average visit takes at #SanJoaquinValley hospitals. theintersectionreports.org/how-long-doe...

I’ve been thinking about how to find R packages by functionality when you don’t already know the package name. So over the holidays, Claude Code and I built The Warehouse: a functionality-first R package directory that helps you find packages by what they do. rwarehouse.netlify.app #rstats

This weekend I learnt of braided flow, discovered in 2000s. In late '80s l studied light transport through tissue (PhD now obsolete? Progress!). Instead of evenly spreading, it propagates in braids because of tiny differences in refractive index. I verified this with a laser & soap bubble #Physics

I'm a beta tester for this. A box connects my telescope to a global network of scopes. Scientists & amateur astronomers from the other side of the globe have looked through my scope-amazing! Importantly, in these days where integrity of research data is paramount the block chain approach provides it

Just saying

For reasons beyond my ken @jama.com declined to publish this letter in which I highlight a serious issue with the DECAF study interpretation. Judge for yourselves. I believe the message "don't go cold turkey on coffee" should be delivered to all with AF. #CardioSky doi.org/10.13140/RG....

On Nov 25, asteroid Nephele passed in front of a distant star. For ~20 seconds, the star disappeared. That blackout let #astronomers measure a 100 km-wide asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Quiet moments like this are how we map and understand what’s moving through our solar system.

Our guidance regarding performance measures for medical AI models is finally out! - Stop bashing AUROC, although it does not settle things - Calibration and clinical utility are key - Show risk distributions - Classification statistics (e.g. F1) are improper www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

From Matlab to CRAN took 13 years! But thanks to Dan Perez Vicencio & Dimitrios Doudesis raptools is now live for evaluating the added value of that biomarker, or the performance of that prediction model. Multiple graphs & some stats metrics. cran.r-project.org/package=rapt... #rstats #Medsky

A 1news headline. I think the first Chinese ship was so surprised to see #NZ had a warship that they invited their mates to come and have a look.

Machine learning has developed remarkable new ideas about how to develop prediction algorithms. But always baffled me why the field had to reinvent how to evaluate models. Here we show F score should not be used to evaluate medical prediction models link.springer.com/epdf/10.1186...

A constellation of amateur astronomers observed a disintegrating exoplanet for @unistellar.bsky.social & @setiinstitute.bsky.social professional astronomers. It's thought it has a comet like appearance, so I made a gif. Our data shows a dimming of the star as the planet goes in front. #Astronomy

My first

A brilliant health message from @healthnz.govt.nz that only #NZ and #Australia will understand. #cricket

Dear Journal Editors, If the publication is Open Access then all Letters concerning the publication should be automatically Open Access too. Thank you, John #MedSky #Academia #Journals

What were the police thinking getting the driver to drive that car at all following the crash? Obviously it wouldn't pass a warrant. #NZ @nzherald.bsky.social

Calling the research you are doing a "paradigm shift" before the jury is out is the kinda hype editors should be getting rid of. #MedSky #Cardiosky #PetPeeve (I won't call out the paper 'cause I'm nice, really)

If you're not in Christchurch, you're missing out! Come join the busiest emergency department in Australasia (Southern Hemisphere?) with incomparable small-city quality of life. "Fellow" positions open for applications for 2026: cdhb.careercentre.net.nz/Job/Emergenc...

In case you missed this late-breaker at #AHA25. ICare-FASTER showed that the introduction of a high-sensitive Point-of-care troponin assay in 6 emergency departments (n=60,000) was safe & reduced length of stay. #EMSky #CardioSky

Wow-media (& paper) about DECAF #AF trial have it totally the wrong way around. Control = coffee drinkers [usual behaviour] Intervention = Going cold turkey Therefore correct interpretation is: "Going cold turkey on coffee may increase AF rate, HR 1.6(95%CI 1.1 to 2.4)" #AHA25 #CardioSky

At #AHA2025? I would love a photo of Martin Than presenting our ICare-FASTER point of care #troponin #EMsky trial results as a late-breaker at 09:24 on Sunday (session FS.05). The culmination of a 7.5y project. 60,000 patients, hundreds of staff. Thanks #CardioSky ps. the results are worth the wait

A medical physicist’s deep dive into the history of X-rays in New Zealand has uncovered that not only is the oldest New Zealand X-ray in existence in Christchurch, its subject - a native frog - is also still floating around after 130 years. Click the link in our bio or go to thepress.co.nz for the…

The Ferrier Research Institute in Wellington is seeking a motivated PhD student to work on an exciting project at the interface of organic chemistry, peptide science, and antibiotic discovery, contributing to urgently needed new treatments. www.wgtn.ac.nz/ferrier/stud...

I love it when collogues of mine from University of Otago Christchurch get well deserved recognition. flip.it/jdVlx9 Well done Logan... Lilly medallist. #NZ #Genetics #Cancer @universityofotago.bsky.social

Help! Journal Publisher websites like the European Heart Journal are now putting the annoying Cookies message up on every page! Any plugins (Safari) for automatically Rejecting All? #Academia #Journals

View north above #Christchurch from a weather station at 1003 this morning (a few mins ago). Now >50km/h sustained winds there. Hold on to your hats folks. #Oct23Storm

Hope all fellow #Christchurch folk have the hatches battened down for the #Oct23Storm. We've just had a period of calm up on Westmorland. But at the v top of Marley Hill a gust hit 93 km/h at 8:43 this morning (check out the Attentis app). More coming!

Anthropic #AI just got pinged for US$1.5bn for nicking stuff from authors. $3K per book. Check the list: secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup SadlyI don't hold the #copyright for the only one I contributed to (ironically an article on plagiarism). www.chemistryworld.com/news/ai-comp...

High-sens POC troponin assays have potential to reduce ED LOS for chest pain patients - but are they safe? When used within an ESC-type pathway, POC hs-TnI ruled out MI in 32% patients after a single test, with 100% sensitivity doi.org/10.1111/1742... @emajournal.bsky.social

I asked OpenEvidence & Asta medical literature trained #AI s "What does a troponin of 4 mean?" Neither said the qn makes no sense or it depends on assay Only Asta said it depends on units Asta's references were very dodgy OpenEvidence's better, but out of date Caveat Emptor #AI #EMedSky #CardioSky

If you sometimes feel uncertain about what #statistics do or do not tell us, this #podcast from early September is well worth listening to. (And while you are at it, most other episodes of the #InGoodCompany series are also well worth your time.) shows.acast.com/622618c7057f...

This week's plan: 1. Get Nobel in Med. ❌ 😞 2. Get Nobel in Phys. 3. Get Nobel in Chem. 4. Get Nobel in Lit. ... not eligble 'cos can't writ. 😜 5. Get Noble in Peace ... 🤣 ... I want to bang all their heads together!!!!!

“We can’t think about one anymore without the other,” says Martha Gulati, MD, MS, FACC on the link between treating the kidney and protecting the heart. "We should aim to reduce the progression of chronic kidney diseases in order to reduce the possibility of heart disease." #ACCLATAM #ACCIntl

The potential use of clinical biomarkers as a rule-out test for intracranial pathology in head-injured patients doi.org/10.1111/1742... #OpenAccess @wiley.com #MedSky #EMSky #EMedSky #emimcc #ACEM

For #Stunday the Sculptor Filament Galaxy captured this week from Christchurch #NZ At 11M light years it’s really close! About 70% diameter of the moon in the sky.

More detail / nuance in my full writeup about this article on @medscape if you want to dive deeper: www.medscape.com/viewarticle/... /🧵

The facts everyone agrees on: Early-onset cancer rates (before age 50) ARE rising. Some cancers like thyroid, kidney, endometrial, and colorectal are up >1% per year since 1992. The debate? Whether these new cases actually matter. 2/

Comet 2025 R2 Swan from New Zealand soon after sunset. #stunday #astronomy #NZ

Greeted the sun from Christchurch, New Zealand this morning. #NZ #eclipse #stunday #astronomy

Just saying #StatsSky #rstats #Statistics

Because it's been a while - for those working in Emergency Medicine there is a feed for you with all your fav tags: bsky.app/profile/kiwi... #ED #ER #EMSky

To improve equity "opportunity" risk stratification for cardiovascular outcomes with a mammogram is intriguing. Whilst not convincingly better than the #NZ PREDICT score, this looks good work & certainly worth more investigation. Calibration is impressive (hidden in supplement :( ) #CardioSky

Took #rstats #ggplot 4.0.0 for a spin with @universityofotago.bsky.social colours to test my latest effort to fake biomarker data Thanks @thomasp85.com - brilliant. See www.tidyverse.org/blog/2025/09...

I'd thought - good journal - interesting cohort - this maybe a good #machinelearning paper Sadly - trained with ~50 features yet only 23 events! Validated with only 16 events! No calibration! Please don't do this #cardiosky #statsky #ACS www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/...

Trying to fix this ... or maybe just sowing more confusion. #statistics #regression

I just read this nice pre-print on interpretation of complex prediction models using the #rstats and #python marginaleffects package by @dingdingpeng.the100.ci & @vincentab.bsky.social . Very accessible & intuitive. osf.io/preprints/ps... #statistics

“Nowhere to hide” - brilliant title for fascinating #NZ research flip.it/mRBJE1 #Volcano #geology

15 years ago this morning I was woken by what was to be the first of a series of devastating #earthquake s. They took 185 lives, and ultimately resulted in the destruction of many thousands of buildings and homes. We still get occasional reminders with a jolt from below. #Christchurch #NZ Kia kaha

Yeah - some good news. These, though, are deaths only. Attempts down too which is good because paraquat poisoning also destroys kidneys dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.to... #AKI #Nephrology #SriLanka