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Sarah Ackley

@sfackley.bsky.social

530 followers 1.3K following 85 posts

Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Brown University. Dementia Pharmacoepidemiology. Dynamical Modeling. Statistics. Metascience & Knowledge Representation. Cat Mom. She/her.

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Reposted by Sarah Ackley

Maria Glymour @mariaglymour.bsky.social · 25d

Such a cool paper. #EpiSky @amjepi.bsky.social #DataScience #Reproducibility Led by @sfackley.bsky.social at
@brown-epi.bsky.social
Research on reproducible research funded by NIH/NIA - thank you!

Triangulation of Innovative Methods to End Alzheimer’s Disease @timead.bsky.social · 27d

🔎 Meta-analysis and triangulation depend on credible science.

📈 TIME-AD’s latest paper, led by Dr. Sarah Ackley, examines 20,000+ abstracts using an LLM to determine whether P value trends reflect changes in p-hacking, publication bias, or statistical power.

Read it: tinyurl.com/3f3nuxma

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Aug 28

There is a lot of literature with highly visible peaks just below 0.05. And the easiest way to get that is to p-hack under the null bc that's the scenario with the most density in the neighborhood of 0.04.

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Aug 28

Before writing this I had somehow assumed if you had lowish power you'd be more likely to get 0.04+delta than 0.01 + delta. But the p-curves, increase as you move towards zero. So a lot of p-hacking practices will show up in ways that aren't particularly visible--e.g. 0.01.

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Aug 28

This work illustrates how large-scale text analysis, combined with extensions of p-curve methods to variable-power settings, can determine how efforts to improve research rigor are influencing the quality and credibility of large bodies of the scientific literature.

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Aug 28

The fraction of borderline significant P values has modestly declined. But this appears to reflect increased study power, not reductions in P hacking or publication bias.

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Aug 28

Check out our recently published paper at AJE!

academic.oup.com/aje/advance-...

We analyzed 21,332 abstracts (2000-2024) from four major epidemiology journals, extracting 25,288 P values using ChatGPT’s 4o model with few-shot in-context prompting.

#episky #reproducibility #metasci #metascience

academic.oup.com

Reposted by Sarah Ackley

Triangulation of Innovative Methods to End Alzheimer’s Disease @timead.bsky.social · Jul 25

#TIME-AD is heading to #AAIC25!

📊 We’ll be sharing results from our latest preprint examining whether reductions in brain amyloid—a key Alzheimer’s biomarker—can meaningfully predict changes in cognition and functioning.

🔗 Read the preprint: tinyurl.com/5n8psura

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Jul 25

Looking forward to presenting this renanalysis of the A4 study, as well as a simulation study evaluating SILA's ability to detect ceilings in amyloid accumulation at #AAIC25. #ENDALZ

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Evaluation of Amyloid Removal as a Surrogate for Cognitive Decline: Pilot Analysis in Individual-Level Data from the A4 Study of Solanezumab

Background Amyloid removal has been used as a surrogate outcome in Alzheimer’s disease trials, allowing accelerated approval of aducanumab and lecanemab. The A4 (Alzheimer’s Clinical Trial Consortium ...

www.medrxiv.org

Reposted by Sarah Ackley

Triangulation of Innovative Methods to End Alzheimer’s Disease @timead.bsky.social · Jul 23

🧠 TIME-AD is now on Bluesky!

#TIME-AD brings together results from different study designs and populations to find what really works to prevent and delay dementia.

Follow along as we share what we’re learning and check out our website to learn more: www.time-ad.org

#EndALZ #EpiSky #NeuroSky

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Jul 22

This link might be better!

Evaluation of Amyloid Removal as a Surrogate for Cognitive Decline: Pilot Analysis in Individual-Level Data from the A4 Study of Solanezumab

Background: Amyloid removal has been used as a surrogate outcome in Alzheimer's disease trials, allowing accelerated approval of aducanumab and lecanemab. The A4 (Alzheimer's Clinical Trial Consortium...

www.medrxiv.org

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Jul 22

These methods should be replicated in trials with greater clinical decline in placebo groups and larger treatment effects (e.g., lecanemab, donanemab) to assess whether amyloid truly works as a surrogate.

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Jul 22

... and does not find evidence that amyloid is a good surrogate marker.

But: A4 had minimal progression and modest amyloid removal.

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Jul 22

FDA accelerated approvals for Alzheimer’s drugs have relied on amyloid reduction as a surrogate marker, but does it actually lead to cognitive benefit?

This preprint uses individual-level A4 trial data to ask that question rigorously ...

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Jul 22

New preprint up!

Evaluation of Amyloid Removal as a Surrogate for Cognitive Decline: Pilot Analysis in Individual-Level Data from the A4 Study of Solanezumab

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

www.medrxiv.org

Reposted by Sarah Ackley

Andrea Gilmore Bykovskyi @algilmore.bsky.social · Jun 25

Excellent talk at #MELODEM2025 by @sfackley.bsky.social evaluating amyloid as a surrogate marker with individual level A4 trial data

One big take away — 5 years was not enough time to see cognitive decline in the placebo group == a major challenge

Reposted by Sarah Ackley

Jennifer Weuve @epidancer.bsky.social · Jun 25

Now at #MELODEM2025 Is reducing/removing amyloid from the brain a reasonable surrogate for slowing/stopping cognitive decline in dementia? @sfackley.bsky.social uses data from the A4 RCT (of solanezumab) to answer this q, ...

@melodem.bsky.social

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · May 28

Thanks!

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · May 27

I was invited to comment for AlzForum on GLP-1s and dementia.

GLP-1s show promise, but RCTs like GRADE have not demonstrated clear cognitive benefits. Observational studies may be confounded by socioeconomic factors and prescribing patterns.

Read the full comment: www.alzforum.org/papers/gluco...

Glucose-Lowering Medications, Glycemia, and Cognitive Outcomes: The GRADE Randomized Clinical Trial. | ALZFORUM

www.alzforum.org

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Apr 24

In addition to today's NIH-grant-related anxiety, a cat vomited a fur ball in my shoe.

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Apr 15

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/u...

Harvard Will Not Comply With a List of Trump Administration Demands (Gift Article)

Federal officials said Harvard must enact “merit-based reform” in hiring and admissions and report international students who broke rules, among other steps. Harvard called the demands unlawful.

www.nytimes.com

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Apr 14

I wrote 1/3 of a page of my grant!

headings only: significance, innovation, approach, future directions

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Apr 7

This would seem to contradict that, at least for the most recent death. Looking into the other 2.

bsky.app/profile/kaka...

Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · Apr 6

"The school-aged child who tested positive for measles was hospitalized in Lubbock and passed away on Thursday from what the child’s doctors described as measles pulmonary failure. The child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions."

www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/...
#IDsky 🧪

Texas announces second death in measles outbreak | Texas DSHS

www.dshs.texas.gov

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Apr 7

So many more people than I realized!

Conor McDonough @conormcdonough.com · Apr 5

This is what democracy looks like in Providence, RI #handsoff @indivisibleri.bsky.social @indivisible.org @alexagagosz.bsky.social @fitzprov.bsky.social @tednesi.bsky.social @globeri.bsky.social @steveahlquist.bsky.social @nancyklavin.bsky.social

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Apr 6

& Not sure what to make of the hospitalizations here--seems much lower than the oft cited 1 in 3 cases.

People aren't going or can't go to the hospitial when they need to?
Or people aren't that sick?

bsky.app/profile/mega...

Megan Ranney MD MPH @meganranney.bsky.social · Apr 6

New measles death in TX - a child. C/w last week:

CURRENT CASE COUNT: 569
Texas: 481 (+59)
New Mexico: 54 (+6)
Oklahoma: 10
Kansas: 24 (+1)

HOSPITALIZATIONS: 58 (+14)
Texas: 56 (+14) have been hospitalized, 11.6%.
New Mexico: 2 (No change). This is 4.5% of NM cases.

DEATHS: 3 (+1)

Sarah Ackley @sfackley.bsky.social · Apr 6

Note on my previous calculation--arguably 1/1000 is too high.

Seth Edmunds @phealthy.bsky.social · Apr 6

That figure is pretty old by this point and suffers from MAUP, these areas are more akin to LMICs than the typical US counties.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Estimating national-level measles case–fatality ratios in low-income and middle-income countries: an updated systematic review and modelling study

Although CFRs have declined between 1990 and 2019, there are still large heterogeneities across locations and ages. One limitation of this systematic review is that we were unable to assess measles CF...

www.thelancet.com