September 17, 2005

• Let's see ... it's been about two weeks since the last blog
  entry.  A couple of people have asked me (in person) about the
  lipid stuff I was working on.  It was encouraging to be reminded
  that there are other "story junkies" out there, who find no peace until
  they've completed a book/movie/etc.

  Well, time for the first disappoint:  I don't have the answer
  yet.  We did get a download of additional data that was more
  detailed than the standard lab reports (thanks to the generous sharing
  of the lead science officer at the company doing the lab tests). 
  The results we saw using the more detailed data were provocative, but
  unfortunately the 400+ number of people in the current study is just
  not enough to answer the question we are asking. 

  (Sidebar:  it will likely be enough to answer whether or not there
  is added benefit to the people taking the drug being studied, but not
  enough to answer this tangential question.) 

  (Second sidebar:  In astronomy, if you can't see a particular
  asterism, say the whirlpool galaxy for example, you get a bigger
  telescope.  The equivalent in the statistical world is the number
  of people in your study.  If you can see a difference between two
  groups but the difference isn't significant, you probably need more
  people in order to see the difference.)

  We got to the point on 9 September, recognizing that we couldn't pin
  down the effect with the current study, and so we turned our attention
  to other things.  However, I did mention to the head of science at
  the company providing the lab test info that, if he came across a
  larger study that would let us examine the question again, let me know.

  Not quite end of story.  The next Monday I get an email from my
  new friend at the company that does the lab tests.  It seems he
  was just given permission to use the dataset from a larger study that
  his firm has been providing with lab tests.  He normally works
  with a statistician friend who is at the CDC, but that fellow is
  currently swamped.  So, he wondered if I would be interested in
  helping him.  He has a specific target in mind and part of what I
  would get out of the partnership is an opportunity to chase down the
  effect I saw in a larger study - about 1600 people this time.

  Obviously, there is a lot of "hand waving" going on here.  No
  names, etc.  It's the nature of the beast that you don't talk
  about people or companies without their permission, at least not until
  the joint work appears in press (and is obvious anyway at that point) -
  which tends to take months to a year.  But life goes on and you
  realize that God is much more in control of the overall process of life
  and research than you are.

  • 11:09 pm
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