Ben Goldacre
475,483 followers
Ashok Devanampriya 
Morpher 
donotcrywolf 
My glorious friend Amber Marks has made a BEAUTIFUL art book (with tons of text) from the archives of her dad, Howard Marks / Mr Nice. If you enjoy charismatic /
implausible / true romps from non-violent international cannabis smugglers, this is your book amzn.to/3mdxexv
I really dislike my own burning desire to read narratives into numbers like these. My head is full of untestable hypotheses around recession, anxiety.. twitter.com/DPMcBride/stat…
@sadiahasnain @economics_unit @ChelwestFT @LBofHounslow @A_nalystX @MLCSU @Strategy_Unit @apha_analysts @NHSEnglandLDN @Liscummins @HealthierNWL @ARC_NWL @cwpluscharity @Bethan_Davies1 In @bengoldacre et al. he talks about getting the best from analytical teams by having them work closely with clinicians. The brilliant @sadiahasnain has always known this & it has been really exciting partnering with her & the team at @ChelwestFT journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre 
📌#OpenSAFELYY is the largest NHS data analysis platform created. Data is safely managed, and researchers submit queries against it. A model policing could replicate? h/t@bengoldacree
#osss#civictechh#policinggthedatalab.org/blog/189/opens…O
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre 
This @jetjocko lecture on the science of colour is a romp.
youtu.be/E7M2Dm1tE0U
Please apply.
We have a biscuit jar of ideas and need more cookie monsters twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre Let's get cool, in ze pool.
Oh let's get cool.
youtu.be/PBg-ukRUJuQ
I am not in pay of Big Window. However if you have Velux in attic and it's stupidly hot, these external blind things cost fifty quid on special offer, fit in fifteen minutes, and amazingly they do make a bit of a difference.
roofblinds.co.uk/catalog/velux/…
Calling Service NSW is a trip. "If you are calling about the pandemic press one, if you are calling about the mouse plague, press two. If you are calling about the recent floods, press three."
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre "Oh wait, my problem is solved, Miele do actually make gas range ovens." "Oh hang on, they cost ELEVEN THOUSAND POUNDS."
Well, future landfill it is then. Sorry people of tomorrow! [waves]
miele.co.uk/e/range-cooker…
Tell this to everybody wherever they are. twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
My 90cm wide gas oven range thing is going in landfill because no parts available
Is there a cooker equivalent of Miele, where you pay a stupid amount but it's a 10yr warranty from a genuinely credible company, so you're truly buying a decade of cooker rather than more landfill?
OOPS, NOW RETWEETING WITH ACTUAL BMJ PAPER LINK twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
we seem to have 17 million of those in the Netherlands. twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre Lol good point.
Okay, ACTUAL EPIDEMIOLOGISTS, we are hiring
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecruit… twitter.com/martinsykeshaa…
We are hiring EPIDEMIOLOGISTS
Come and work on OpenSAFELY.org
- Lead great papers
- Access great data
- Build a great TRE
- Have great impact
- Learn great new skills
- Join a great team
No advanced coding skills required: we will train you!
twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
People with learning disability are 5x more likely to be admitted with COVID-19, and 8x more likely to die from COVID-19.
Concerning new paper from @OpenSafely on 17 million adults in @bmj_latest latest today
Heavy lifting: @StatsFizz @sebbacon @TPP_SystmOne @drchrisbates
📌#OpenSAFELYY is the largest NHS data analysis platform created. Data is safely managed, and researchers submit queries against it. A model policing could replicate? h/t@bengoldacree
#osss#civictechh#policinggthedatalab.org/blog/189/opens…O
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre People misuse data, more readily in systems where there are fewer incentives for the organisation to do the right thing. twitter.com/doctorow/statu…
I enjoy the plain, gentle language of this tweet from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cycling. twitter.com/allpartycyclin…
This is a good example of a practical RCT: non slip footwear prevents slips and falls in hospital staff. I'll admit I'm surprised by the size of the finding, tho the cost per QALY is pretty huge.. journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/phr/phr09030#/…
Clouds of flying ants that are big enough to be picked up on radar.
How super. twitter.com/metoffice/stat…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre England playing in major international football tournaments increases heart attack deaths. We *must* stop such games for public health reasons. Will 121 people please join me in writing a letter to @lancet to ensure this outrage is stopped?
bmj.com/content/325/73…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre Threadbump
TLDR:
1. People are wondering how to allay privacy concerns re GP data extraction
2. We built @OpenSafely as open source tools to address this problem.
3. Huge Citizens Jury this week shows that patients understand and trust it (and moreso than other data projects) twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre I say "cycle path". These are lines painted on the road by @OxfordshireCC @OxfordCity. Not only is "paint not infrastructure", but these lines are painted on the road in a manner that actively makes cycling *more* dangerous. It defies belief.
twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre @OxfordshireCC @OxfordCity That dangerous @OxfordshireCC @OxfordCity cycle path where he was killed is ∼250 yards from this Oxford cycle path, which is so dangerous that the police pulled a mother over to warn her not to cycle there because drivers get so aggressive about passing.. twitter.com/katherinesmile…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre A man in his 30s has been killed after "colliding with a metal pole while cycling on Old Road in Oxford"
Why?
Because @OxfordshireCC @OxfordCity put metal poles *in the middle* of Oxford's cycle paths.
oxfordmail.co.uk/news/19411615.…
Here is the location:
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre I say "cycle path". These are lines painted on the road by @OxfordshireCC @OxfordCity. Not only is "paint not infrastructure", but these lines are painted on the road in a manner that actively makes cycling *more* dangerous. It defies belief.
twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
A man in his 30s has been killed after "colliding with a metal pole while cycling on Old Road in Oxford"
Why?
Because @OxfordshireCC @OxfordCity put metal poles *in the middle* of Oxford's cycle paths.
oxfordmail.co.uk/news/19411615.…
Here is the location:
Great piece. For good or ill (we don't know yet) it will be really interesting to see what happens to the jobs market, and food prices, when incoming migrants no longer take jobs like these. twitter.com/sarahoconnor_/…
The @StreetComplete project is great, tho I do sliiiiiightly feel they would get more users if they linked their Google Play page where normal Android users can download and use the app, rather than their GitHub page! play.google.com/store/apps/det… twitter.com/sebbacon/statu…
Threadbump
TLDR:
1. People are wondering how to allay privacy concerns re GP data extraction
2. We built @OpenSafely as open source tools to address this problem.
3. Huge Citizens Jury this week shows that patients understand and trust it (and moreso than other data projects) twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
Alan Sugar's loss is @OpenSafely's gain.
Talented people who like working from home, with occasional blats to Oxford for team days: come and work with us!
Epidemiologist
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecruit…
Wouldn't say no to more devs either
thedatalab.org/blog/185/were-…
More senior ppl: e me. twitter.com/Lord_Sugar/sta…
@NickForr Exploratory analyses are no different in @OpenSafely to when you're working directly with the data: you write code, you execute code, you see the output tables.
One important thing for the p-hackers tho: everyone can see all the analyses you ran!
We have paper coming on this... twitter.com/NickForr/statu…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre No criticism of the journalist, it's a completely reasonable question to ask all researchers in case they say something interesting. And I do have some views. But I'm just baffled by all the colleagues with deep but narrow expertise who are *so certain* about things during COVID.
In an interview just now on our Long COVID paper a nice journalist asked me what I think will happen, after today's change in COVID restrictions
It cost me nothing to say this: "Predicting change in risk, after changes in societal interventions, is not my field: so I don't know"
Care about doing patient data, trust etc properly in the NHS? Excellent thread twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre Important thread about what builds public trust in data sharing twitter.com/bengoldacre/st…
Retweeted by Ben Goldacre All that detail was for a reason.
Everyone in the @OpenSafely team is really, really, REALLY delighted that this Citizens Jury has come out so strongly in support of our model for protecting privacy.
That goes beyond normal, silly, work pridefulness.
Why?
You can read more about how @OpenSafely works here: opensafely.org/about/
And of course our full user manual here:
docs.opensafely.org
And all code for the platform and every analysis ever run here:
github.com/opensafely
This is complete transparency. Everything that any researcher or analyst has executed against NHS patient data through @OpenSafely is logged and shared: in tech terms, we link to the GitHub repo, and the commit ID.
In @OpenSafely we know your code is non-disclosive, because it was developed on dummy data (although it gets executed against real data later, to deliver proper real outputs). So you can share it fine. And we oblige you to, at publication (or beforehand)! opensafely.org/about/
Secondly, it brings massive benefits for open working. Lots of TREs block users from being able to access GitHub, for good reason: because your data management and analysis code, developed interactively with real data, might itself be disclosive... opensafely.org/about/
This is critical. Firstly, it helps preserve patient privacy, by removing a ton of work where normally analysts are tinkering iteratively with access to raw pseudonymised patient records... opensafely.org/about/
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