Dynamic predicting by landmarking as an alternative for multi-state modeling: an application to acute lymphoid leukemia data

This paper considers the problem of obtaining a dynamic prediction for 5-year failure free survival after bone marrow transplantation in ALL patients using data from the EBMT, the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. The paper compares the new landmark methodology as developed by the first author and the established multi-state modeling as described in a recent Tutorial in Biostatistics in Statistics in Medicine by the second author and colleagues. As expected the two approaches give similar results. The landmark methodology does not need complex modeling and leads to easy prediction rules. On the other hand, it does not give the insight in the biological processes as obtained for the multi-state model.     

The distribution of mortality in the United States: the effects of income (inequality), social capital, and race

This article examines how absolute and relative income levels, social capital, and racial/ethnic composition interact to explain variation in age-adjusted mortality rates across the 48 contiguous U.S. states. Our data showed that social capital had a powerful, negative effect on age-adjusted mortality rates--higher social capital states had lower age-adjusted mortality rates. After controlling for other variables, median income moderately related to mortality, but unexpectedly three measures of inequality did not. Finally, states' percent African American positively related to mortality, though indirectly and mediated entirely by social capital. In contrast, the strong negative effect of percent Hispanic/Latino on mortality was partially suppressed by its negative association with social capital. Our understanding of the substantial impact of social conditions on mortality can help inform public policies and actions that may foster healthier and longer lives.     

三要素助力组织变革

有广泛基础的组织变革需要高度的一致性,即团队所有成员拥有共同的目标,愿景,并理解他们个人如何能支持整体战略。     

A marketing plan: like it or not, you already have one

A physician executive dives into the world of marketing and discovers that just coming up with a marketing plan for a group practice can be very pricey.