{"id":8928,"date":"2014-02-22T12:11:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T17:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=8928"},"modified":"2014-02-22T12:11:32","modified_gmt":"2014-02-22T17:11:32","slug":"mammograms-university-lapses-and-the-limits-of-big-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/02\/mammograms-university-lapses-and-the-limits-of-big-data.html","title":{"rendered":"Mammograms, University Lapses, and the Limits of Big Data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Over at my day job, I\u2019ve gotten to write about two of my major hobbyhorses recently. \u00a0First in \u201cDid We Mess Up on Mammograms?\u201d<\/a> I got to gloss the big study on the efficacy of breast cancer screening, nerd out about history\/philosophy of medicine,\u00a0and<\/em> design an infographic.<\/p>\n

While we remain torn between the old recommendation and the new, it\u2019s tempting to stick which the more interventionist option. Doctors and patients would like the comfort of knowing they did\u00a0something<\/em>\u00a0even if what they did wasn\u2019t very good. In fact, breast cancer treatment, as well as its diagnosis, has fallen prey to this rationale.<\/p>\n

Women used to receive the\u00a0Halstead procedure<\/a>, a particularly radical form of mastectomy in which the doctor would remove the breast, underlying chest muscle, and even, sometimes, muscle in the neck and arm. William Steward Halstead performed the operation in good faith, thinking it was better to do everything he could for his patients, seeking to make the extremity of his surgery match the intensity of his intentions.<\/p>\n

The same diseased thinking spreads through our body politic.\u00a0War hawks accuse non-interventionists<\/a>\u00a0of being indifferent to humanitarian causes or national interest, when, in fact, the most ballistically satisfying solution may do more to calm our nerves than to quiet regional tensions. Politicians, like medical regulatory boards, become fearful of admitting that facts on the ground have changed since they made a decision, and the\u00a0employer mandate doesn\u2019t make much sense in a slack labor market<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Continue reading\u2026<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here\u2019s the infographic:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, this week, I made a connection between the rape allegations at Patrick Henry College and the broader issue of \u201cHow Universities Fail Students in Crisis\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and, unfortunately, having plenty of examples from my own alma mater to draw upon:<\/p>\n

When students at my alma mater discussed the mental health or sexual assault resources, it might have sounded like we were cribbing from the\u00a0\u201cNever Ever Talk to the Police\u201d lecture<\/a>\u00a0by Professor James Duane of the Regent University School of Law that was taking a tour of campuses. You\u2019re talking to someone who\u2019s job is to safeguard the\u00a0community<\/em>, not\u00a0you<\/em>, if, in their opinion, you present a legal, physical, or reputational risk to the institution\u2026<\/p>\n

Students who seek help, especially students suffering from mental health issue or the lingering trauma of rape, are rolling the dice that the counselor assigned to them will be willing to take a risk on their recovery, instead of limiting the liability of their school.<\/p>\n

Continue reading\u2026<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I also evaluated the new GOP push to finally use Big Data in their election efforts, and even used a sports metaphor, in \u201cRepublicans Try to Bridge the Big Data Gap.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The Democrats\u2019 playbook resembled the sabermetric approach of Billy Beane, the Oakland A\u2019s coach profiled in\u00a0Moneyball<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0By taking a finer-grained approach to a market (of persuadable voters, in the Democrats case, of free agents and draftees, in Beane\u2019s), the quants were able to steal a march on their opponents.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Billy Beane\u2019s Oakland A\u2019s only benefited from his\u00a0Moneyball<\/em><\/a>\u00a0strategies for a few seasons before the rest of the league caught up, and his advantage didn\u2019t last long enough to reach the World Series. His data-intensive approach only helped as long as players were systematically mispriced. Once the other general managers wised up, the market for players settled into a new equilibrium and the richer teams were able to outbid their rivals for better players.<\/p>\n

Continue reading\u2026<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, speaking of Big Data, I\u2019ve taken on a volunteer comms role at Code for DC<\/a>, so I\u2019ll sometimes be reporting on the projects these programmers are building to serve our local community. \u00a0I just did a post to celebrate Open Data Day and profile some of the projects in development<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at my day job, I\u2019ve gotten to write about two of my major hobbyhorses recently. \u00a0First in \u201cDid We Mess Up on Mammograms?\u201d I got to gloss the big study on the efficacy of breast cancer screening, nerd out about history\/philosophy of medicine,\u00a0and design an infographic. While we remain torn between the old recommendation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":8929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[92],"class_list":["post-8928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-other-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nMammograms, University Lapses, and the Limits of Big Data<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Over at my day job, I've gotten to write about two of my major hobbyhorses recently. \u00a0First in "Did We Mess Up on Mammograms?" 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