Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35536588›Full record

ArticleBiostatistics (Oxford, England)2023

Automated splitting into batches for observational biomedical studies with sequential processing.

Bram Burger, Marc Vaudel, Harald Barsnes

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biostatistics (Oxford, England), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Bram BurgerComputational Biology Unit (CBU), Department of Informatics, University of Bergen, 5008 Bergen, Norway, Proteomics Unit (PROBE), Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway, and Department of Medical Genetics, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway.
Marc VaudelDepartment of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway.
Harald BarsnesComputational Biology Unit (CBU), Department of Informatics, University of Bergen, 5008 Bergen, Norway and Proteomics Unit (PROBE), Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Experimental design usually focuses on the setting where treatments and/or other aspects of interest can be manipulated. However, in observational biomedical studies with sequential processing, the set of available samples is often fixed, and the problem is thus rather the ordering and allocation of samples to batches such that comparisons between different treatments can be made with similar precision. In certain situations, this allocation can be done by hand, but this rapidly becomes impractical with more challenging cohort setups. Here, we present a fast and intuitive algorithm to generate balanced allocations of samples to batches for any single-variable model where the treatment variable is nominal. This greatly simplifies the grouping of samples into batches, makes the process reproducible, and provides a marked improvement over completely random allocations. The general challenges of allocation and why good solutions can be hard to find are also discussed, as well as potential extensions to multivariable settings.

Indexed as

AlgorithmsObservational Studies as TopicHumansResearch DesignBatch generationExperimental designHeuristic algorithm

Identifiers

PMID35536588
PMCPMC10583723

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.