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Industry Spotlight: Hospitals

Hospitals are a major employer of statisticians and analytics professionals, both in support of clinical research like the retinopathy study described earlier, and to improve hospital operations (outcomes, cost management, etc.). Here are a few quick facts about the hospital industry: US hospital revenue totals over $1 trillion – about 5% of GDP. This isContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Hospitals”

Healthcare Analytics: Exploration versus Confirmation

Perhaps the most active application of analytics and data mining is healthcare. This week we look at one success story, the use of machine learning to predict diabetic retinopathy, one story of disappointment, the use of genetic testing in a puzzling disease, and a basic dichotomy in statistical analysis. In his famous 1977 book thatContinue reading “Healthcare Analytics: Exploration versus Confirmation”

Problem of the Week: Simpson’s Paradox – baseball

Question: A baseball team is comparing two of its hitters, Hernandez and Dimock. Hernandez hit .250 in 2017 and .275 in 2018. Dimock did worse in both years – .245 in 2017 and .270 in 2018. Overall, though, Dimock hit better across the two years, .263 versus .258 for Hernandez. How can this be? Answer:Continue reading “Problem of the Week: Simpson’s Paradox – baseball”

Matching Algorithms

Some applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence are recognizably impressive – predicting future hospital readmission of discharged patients, for example, or diagnosing retinopathy. Others – self-driving cars, for example – seem almost magical. The matching problem, though, is one where your first reaction might be “What’s so hard about that?” For example, to takeContinue reading “Matching Algorithms”

Job Spotlight: Risk Analyst

Many jobs are centered around risk management.  If you’re looking through job postings, of course, you’ll see lots of jobs whose purpose is to make sure that nothing bad happens – the equivalent of locking the doors and closing the windows.  More interesting from a statistical perspective are the jobs that assume that bad thingsContinue reading “Job Spotlight: Risk Analyst”

Industry Spotlight: Precision Agriculture

The application of analytics to agriculture has given rise to what is called “precision agriculture,” a science that seeks to take advantage of and use detailed information that is local in time and place.  Tractors and farm equipment are being equipped with sensors and software that allow them to respond automatically to external data, andContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Precision Agriculture”

Industry Spotlight: Agriculture

Weeds are big business – the global herbicide market is over $35 billion annually.  Weeds are also big government (think “invasive species”). California’s listing of weeds is called Encycloweedia, and the state publishes a quarterly newsletter called Noxious Times. Colorado publishes a similar periodical, Invader. The weed-killer Roundup is the focus of lawsuits that illustrateContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Agriculture”

Industry Spotlight: Credit Scoring

In the U.S., credit scoring is dominated by three companies – Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, employing roughly 30,000 people.  An important player in the scoring methodology is FICO, previously Fair Isaac Corporation, and the scores are typically called “FICO scores.”  Credit scoring is the oldest application of predictive modeling, fulfilling a need that has beenContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Credit Scoring”

Industry Spotlight: Package Delivery Business

Nothing better illustrates the encroachment of data science and analytics on the older “economy of tangible things” than the business of delivering packages. The use of analytics in package delivery is not new. Companies like UPS and Fedex are longtime users of operations research methods like optimization and simulation to route inter-city shipments, site newContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Package Delivery Business”

Industry Spotlight: Baseball (Sports) Statistics

The U.S. baseball season opens Thursday, March 28, and celebrates the 48th season of analytics in baseball, beginning with the founding of the Sabermetric Society in 1971 (the same year that Satchel Paige entered the Hall of Fame).  Analytics has come a long way in sports, and now has its own conference, the MIT SportsContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Baseball (Sports) Statistics”

Industry Spotlight: Consulting

When a new technology arrives, consulting companies can quickly add staff and expertise to build institutional capacity centered around the technology in ways companies focused on delivering their own products and services cannot.  Large consulting companies like Booz Allen and McKinsey, as well as smaller analytics-centric firms like Elder Research, thus constitute a significant jobContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Consulting”

Instructor Spotlight: Cliff Ragsdale

Cliff T. Ragsdale teaches several courses for the Institute in the area of operations research, based on his best selling text “Spreadsheet Modeling and Decision Analysis.”  One of Cliff’s special talents is making his subject, which can be quite challenging technically, widely accessible. His courses do not have flashy bells and whistles, but are consistently ratedContinue reading “Instructor Spotlight: Cliff Ragsdale”

Course Spotlight: Survival Analysis

Convinced that he, like his father, would die in his 40’s, Winston Churchill lived his early life in a frenetic hurry.  He had participated in four wars on three continents by his mid-20’s, served in multiple ministerial positions by his 30’s, and published 12 books by his 40’s.  Little did he know that more thanContinue reading “Course Spotlight: Survival Analysis”

Instructor Spotlight: David Kleinbaum

David Kleinbaum developed several courses for Statistics.com, including Survival Analysis, Epidemiologic Statistics, and Designing Valid Statistical Studies.  David retired a little over a year ago from Emory University, where he was a popular and effective teacher with the ability to distill and explain difficult statistical concepts with clarity and concision.  David had a flair forContinue reading “Instructor Spotlight: David Kleinbaum”

Job Spotlight: Data Scientist

Data science is one of a host of similar terms.  “Artificial intelligence” has been around since the 1960’s and “data mining” for at least a couple of decades.  “Machine learning” came out of the computer science community, and “analytics,” “data analytics,” and “predictive analytics” came out of the statistics and OR communities.  Among all ofContinue reading “Job Spotlight: Data Scientist”

Industry Spotlight: Automotive

The auto industry serves as a perfect exemplar of three key eras of statistics and data science in service of industry: Total Quality Management (TQM) First in Japan, and later in the U.S., the auto industry became an enthusiastic adherent to the Total Quality Management philosophy.  Fundamentally, TQM is all about using data to improveContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Automotive”

Likert scale assessment surveys

Do you work with multiple choice tests, or Likert scale assessment surveys? Rasch methods help you construct linear measures from these forms of scored observations and analyze the results from such surveys and tests. “Practical Rasch Measurement – Core Topics“ In this course, you will learn practical aspects of data setup, analysis, output interpretation, fit analysis, differentialContinue reading “Likert scale assessment surveys”

Historical Spotlight: Jacob Wolfowitz

World War II was a crucible of technological innovation, including advances in statistics. Jacob Wolfowitz, born a century ago (1920), looked at the problem of noisy radio transmissions. Coded radio transmissions were critical elements of military command and control, and they were plagued by the problem of atmospheric or other interference – “noise”. The weakerContinue reading “Historical Spotlight: Jacob Wolfowitz”

Certificate Graduate: Karolis Urbonas, Amazon

The Statistics.com courses have helped me a lot, pushing me to the limit and making me learn much more than I expected I could. The knowledge I gained I could immediately leverage in my job … then eventually led to landing a job in my dream company – Amazon. -Karolis Urbanas, Global Head of MachineContinue reading “Certificate Graduate: Karolis Urbonas, Amazon”

Certificate Graduate: Cristobal Bazan, United Nations Agency

Certificate Student Profile of Cristobal Bazan My courses help me look at more complex problems using different approaches to show more interesting aspects of conditions, beyond just tables and charts, more than just sampling or descriptive statistics. Cristobal Bazan United Nations Agency How do you use statistics in your job? I work in a statisticalContinue reading “Certificate Graduate: Cristobal Bazan, United Nations Agency”