Paul Pharoah
@paulpharoah.bsky.social
630 followers 530 following 1.3K posts
Jack of some trades, master of none: public health, epi and genetics mainly. Arsenal supporter, hiker. Live in LA. If home is also where the heart is England, South Africa, Papua New Guinea. Photos are my own. Views expressed are my own.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
paulpharoah.bsky.social
Zoom whisky during COVID with mutual followers on Twitter who I'd never met.
conradhackett.bsky.social
Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?
paulpharoah.bsky.social
Released when I was an undergraduate in Cambridge. Good times!
paulpharoah.bsky.social
"Flier" (and its variant "flyer") can refer to something or someone that flies, such as a bird or an airplane passenger, or a piece of paper used for promotion (a handout).
paulpharoah.bsky.social
A key problem with this analysis is the idea that current NHS interventions cost £15k per QALY. Apart from anything else that is an average across many interventions not all of which would generate more QALYs with more money. NICE decisions based on anything >£15 per QALY have net negative impact.
Reposted by Paul Pharoah
felly500.bsky.social
opportunity costs associated with NICE recommendations.

Defo the most important h economics paper you will read today, maybe this week, maybe the year so far

This is where the primary care budget gets spent

A

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
paulpharoah.bsky.social
The Bayesian Priors: a group of monks singing Gregorian chants.

Dichotomania: a punk rock band relying on their ability to play no more than two notes.

Factor Analysis: A progressive rock band
paulpharoah.bsky.social
Is it my bias or is the use of corporate speak in descriptions of AI in science more prevalent than in the good old days? E.g. "outlines a pediatric-first blueprint to address effective translational pipelines that are governance aligned with clinical workflow and human values." in a talk flyer.
paulpharoah.bsky.social
The average 12 year old is more mature than those currently in charge.
veryimportant.lawyer
working on a new unified theory of american reality i'm calling "everyone is twelve now"
Reposted by Paul Pharoah
pwgtennant.bsky.social
Twitter revolutionised my career.

I learnt a huge amount about causal inference through #EpiTwitter.

And I met many amazing people who I've since had the joy of working with (Eg @epiellie.bsky.social, @epidbydesign.bsky.social, @robertwplatt.bsky.social, @jlrohmann.bsky.social, etc etc)
conradhackett.bsky.social
Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?
Reposted by Paul Pharoah
christosargyrop.bsky.social
I commented about memorization in medical school curricula and why it is unavoidable since the post in the screenshot (and commenters) don't understand the work specs

mastodon.social/@ChristosArg...

x.com/ChristosArgy...
Reposted by Paul Pharoah
statsepi.bsky.social
Yet we still have social media "experts" from academic organizations insisting we must stay on twitter because it has more users. To be honest, most academic organizations will also fail to get much out of bluesky, & should focus efforts on LinkedIn. Bsky best for developing personal peer networks
conradhackett.bsky.social
Bluesky vs. X engagement comparisons tell familiar story.

Example: My colleague @johngramlich.bsky.social has similar # of followers on each site. Last week, he had a popular post about sports gambling, a topic of interest across political ideology.

X: 59 retweets
B: 1,234 total reposts
Image of a post about sports gambling from John Gramlich that received 59 retweets on X. Image of a post about sports gambling from John Gramlich that received 1,234 reposts on Bluesky (815 regular reposts & 419 quote-reposts.
Reposted by Paul Pharoah
statsepi.bsky.social
An 8 year-old blog post on causal thinking in epidemiology that I'm sharing for no particular reason (ICYMI).

darrendahly.github.io/post/2017-02...
Cause vs. Consequence |
Principal Statistician | Senior Lecturer
darrendahly.github.io
Reposted by Paul Pharoah
nmancuso.bsky.social
Yesterday's Academic Senate meeting was amazing. Zoom was at capacity, and once I was finally able to join, I was met with a unified front and consistent message from faculty. We fully reject this compact!

I'm sure the board of trustees will recc the right decision

www.latimes.com/california/s...
USC faculty members denounce Trump compact that would shift university to the right
The USC Academic Senate held a special meeting to discuss the Trump administration's education compact, which was presented to the school last week.
www.latimes.com
Reposted by Paul Pharoah
pwgtennant.bsky.social
Behind most Nobel prize winners were a team of PhD students and postdocs who did the actual work, and may even have come up with the idea, but will likely never be recognised.

These are the people we should celebrate. The hidden figures behind the figureheads. The scientists behind the ego.
rmkubinec.bsky.social
The Nobel Prize is the wrong way to think about science.

My heroes aren't the people with the endowed chairs at the Ivies. They are the people who do the hard work, day in and day out, and who would take a bullet rather than inflate research findings or block others' competing research.
paulpharoah.bsky.social
Though not everyone who says it is wise.
paulpharoah.bsky.social
If only I knowed the answer to this!
paulpharoah.bsky.social
We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun,
But the lyrics that we write
Really are just complete rubbish.
paulpharoah.bsky.social
When did the practical driving test for my California driving license 3 years ago the examiner started by asking me for a variety of hand signals (unexpected). I got them all wrong because they are different to the hand signals in the UK (are they still part of the driving test there?).
pwgtennant.bsky.social
Today I learnt that that British driving theory test comes in two parts:

✅ 50 multiple choice questions, which I was expecting.

❓ 14 hazard perception videos which I'd never heard of until I sat down to take the test.

I passed. But my hazard perception evidently needs work 😂
a cartoon of ralph from the simpsons sits in an orange seat
ALT: a cartoon of ralph from the simpsons sits in an orange seat
media.tenor.com
paulpharoah.bsky.social
Not in my experience.
bsky.app/profile/paul...
paulpharoah.bsky.social
1/n Problems when using large language correlations to do algebra: a 🧵

I was doing some calculations for a parameter in gen epi using a formula given in a highly cited review. The results were not quite what I expected so I went back to first principles to derive the formula myself.