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Topic map75 topic clusters129 guides live

Browse by topic, not just chronology

The archive is finally big enough that a date-sorted list is lazy navigation. These topic pages group related guides so readers can stay inside one problem family, whether they care about identification, bias diagnostics, or study design.

2 guidesOpen topic →

AI-Assisted Research

Latest: Data Leakage in Clinical Prediction Models: When the Model Learns the Future

1 guideOpen topic →

Adaptive Designs

Latest: Platform Trials: When a Shared Control Stops Being the Same Comparison

19 guidesOpen topic →

Bias Diagnostics

Latest: The Will Rogers Phenomenon: When Better Staging Improves Every Group and Nobody Lives Longer

1 guideOpen topic →

Biomarkers

Latest: Surrogate Endpoints: When a Biomarker Improvement Pretends to Be Patient Benefit

1 guideOpen topic →

Case-Crossover Design

Latest: Case-Crossover Design: When Patients Become Their Own Controls

1 guideOpen topic →

Causal Framework

Latest: Structural Causal Models & DAGs: A Practical Guide for Clinical Researchers

66 guidesOpen topic →

Causal Inference

Latest: Causal Readiness: When a Huge Linked Dataset Still Cannot Identify an Effect

2 guidesOpen topic →

Clinical AI

Latest: When More Covariates Break Positivity: Representation-Induced Overlap Failure in Clinical Text

9 guidesOpen topic →

Clinical Epidemiology

Latest: Healthy Screenee Bias: When Screening Attendance Looks Like Screening Benefit

1 guideOpen topic →

Clinical Outcomes

Latest: Competing Risks: When Kaplan-Meier Tells the Wrong Clinical Story

23 guidesOpen topic →

Clinical Trials

Latest: Small Number of Clusters: When 500 Patients Still Behave Like 10 Sites

3 guidesOpen topic →

Clinical Utility

Latest: Calibration Drift: When a Good Model Keeps the Right Rank and Still Gives the Wrong Risk

1 guideOpen topic →

Collider Bias

Latest: Collider Bias: How Adjustment Can Manufacture Associations

3 guidesOpen topic →

Confounding

Latest: Covariate Balance Diagnostics: When the Love Plot Says Balanced but the Groups Still Differ

1 guideOpen topic →

Confounding by Indication

Latest: Confounding by Indication: When Sicker Patients Make Treatments Look Dangerous

4 guidesOpen topic →

DAGs

Latest: Overadjustment Bias: When More Covariates Make Causal Inference Worse

1 guideOpen topic →

DID

Latest: Difference-in-Differences: A Practical Guide for Clinical Researchers

1 guideOpen topic →

Effect Measures

Latest: Noncollapsibility of Odds Ratios: Why Adjustment Can Change the Number Even When Confounding Did Not

1 guideOpen topic →

Effect Modification

Latest: Additive Interaction: When “No Interaction” Depends on the Scale

3 guidesOpen topic →

Estimands

Latest: When Death Changes the Question: Competing Risks, Intercurrent Events, and Truncation by Death

4 guidesOpen topic →

Evidence Appraisal

Latest: Estimation Over Testing: Four Habits That Quietly Break Clinical Statistics

1 guideOpen topic →

Evidence Synthesis

Latest: Transitivity in Network Meta-Analysis: When Indirect Comparisons Pretend the Trials Were Exchangeable

1 guideOpen topic →

External Validity

Latest: Transportability & External Validity: When Your Causal Estimate Travels, and When It Absolutely Does Not

1 guideOpen topic →

G-Computation

Latest: G-Computation: Predict the Outcome Under Each Treatment Strategy

1 guideOpen topic →

G-Estimation

Latest: G-Estimation: The Causal Method You Reach For When Time-Varying Confounding Breaks Regression

1 guideOpen topic →

G-Formula

Latest: Parametric G-Formula: Estimating Causal Effects When Covariates Change Over Time

1 guideOpen topic →

Genetic Epidemiology

Latest: Mendelian Randomization: Using Genetics as Nature's Randomized Trial

4 guidesOpen topic →

Guideline Methods

Latest: Indirectness in Clinical Evidence: When a Good Study Answers the Wrong Question

1 guideOpen topic →

Heterogeneous Effects

Latest: Causal Forests: Finding Treatment Effect Heterogeneity Without Fooling Yourself

1 guideOpen topic →

High-Dimensional Data

Latest: Double Machine Learning: A Practical Guide for Clinical Researchers

1 guideOpen topic →

IPW

Latest: Inverse Probability Weighting: When PSM Discards Your Data

1 guideOpen topic →

Identification

Latest: Front-Door Criterion: The Causal Backdoor Alternative Nobody Uses Enough

1 guideOpen topic →

Immortal Time Bias

Latest: Immortal Time Bias: The Fake Survival Advantage Hiding in Bad Study Design

1 guideOpen topic →

Instrumental Variables

Latest: Instrumental Variables: When Observational Data Meets Unmeasured Confounding

1 guideOpen topic →

Interference

Latest: Interference & Spillover Effects: When One Patient's Treatment Changes Another's Outcome

1 guideOpen topic →

Interrupted Time Series

Latest: Interrupted Time Series: Strong Quasi-Experiments Need More Than a Before-and-After Plot

1 guideOpen topic →

Landmark Analysis

Latest: Landmark Analysis: Useful, Honest, and Frequently Overclaimed

3 guidesOpen topic →

Longitudinal Data

Latest: Time-Varying Confounding: When Yesterday's Treatment Changes Today's Confounder

1 guideOpen topic →

MSM

Latest: Marginal Structural Models: A Practical Guide for Clinical Researchers

3 guidesOpen topic →

Machine Learning

Latest: Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation: Doubly Robust, Not Doubly Forgiving

3 guidesOpen topic →

Measurement Error

Latest: Differential Misclassification: When One Study Arm Gets More Chances to Be Wrong

1 guideOpen topic →

Mechanisms

Latest: Mediation Analysis: When You Want the Mechanism, Not Just the Effect

2 guidesOpen topic →

Mediation Analysis

Latest: Treatment-Induced Mediator-Outcome Confounding: When Mediation Analysis Starts Chasing the Consequences of Treatment

1 guideOpen topic →

Mendelian Randomization

Latest: Mendelian Randomization: Using Genetics as Nature's Randomized Trial

76 guidesOpen topic →

Methods Critique

Latest: Causal Readiness: When a Huge Linked Dataset Still Cannot Identify an Effect

7 guidesOpen topic →

Missing Data

Latest: Complete-Case Analysis: When Missing Data Quietly Changes the Study Population

6 guidesOpen topic →

Observational Studies

Latest: Bias Amplification: When Adjustment Makes Unmeasured Confounding Worse

1 guideOpen topic →

Oncology

Latest: Treatment Switching in Oncology Trials: When Overall Survival Becomes a Rescue Protocol Audit

5 guidesOpen topic →

Outcome Measurement

Latest: Baseline Adjustment in Randomized Trials: Why Change From Baseline Keeps Losing to ANCOVA

1 guideOpen topic →

PSM

Latest: Propensity Score Matching: A Practical Guide for Clinical Researchers

5 guidesOpen topic →

Pharmacoepidemiology

Latest: Washout Periods: When “New Use” Is Just Old Use with Better PR

4 guidesOpen topic →

Policy Evaluation

Latest: Stochastic Interventions: When “Treat Everyone” Is Not the Policy Question

2 guidesOpen topic →

Positivity

Latest: When More Covariates Break Positivity: Representation-Induced Overlap Failure in Clinical Text

10 guidesOpen topic →

Prediction Models

Latest: Predicted Treatment Benefit: When a Risk Model Is Not a Treatment Recommendation

1 guideOpen topic →

Principal Stratification

Latest: Principal Stratification: Estimating Effects When Post-Treatment Variables Matter

2 guidesOpen topic →

Propensity Scores

Latest: Positivity & Overlap: The Assumption Your Causal Estimate Cannot Survive Without

1 guideOpen topic →

Quasi-Experimental

Latest: Regression Discontinuity Design: A Practical Guide for Clinical Researchers

1 guideOpen topic →

RDD

Latest: Regression Discontinuity Design: A Practical Guide for Clinical Researchers

1 guideOpen topic →

RMST

Latest: Restricted Mean Survival Time: When Hazard Ratios Are Not the Clinical Answer

17 guidesOpen topic →

Real-World Evidence

Latest: Causal Readiness: When a Huge Linked Dataset Still Cannot Identify an Effect

1 guideOpen topic →

Reporting Bias

Latest: Outcome Switching: When the Primary Endpoint Moves After the Results Get Interesting

3 guidesOpen topic →

Screening Studies

Latest: Healthy Screenee Bias: When Screening Attendance Looks Like Screening Benefit

2 guidesOpen topic →

Selection Bias

Latest: Selection Bias: When Your Study Sample Is the Problem

1 guideOpen topic →

Self-Controlled Designs

Latest: Self-Controlled Case Series: When Each Patient Becomes Their Own Control

2 guidesOpen topic →

Sensitivity Analysis

Latest: MNAR Sensitivity Analysis: Because “We Assumed MAR” Is Not a Results Section

1 guideOpen topic →

Standardization

Latest: G-Computation: Predict the Outcome Under Each Treatment Strategy

27 guidesOpen topic →

Study Design

Latest: Causal Readiness: When a Huge Linked Dataset Still Cannot Identify an Effect

6 guidesOpen topic →

Survival Analysis

Latest: Nonproportional Hazards: When One Hazard Ratio Pretends the Treatment Effect Never Changes

1 guideOpen topic →

Synthetic Control

Latest: Synthetic Control Methods: Building Counterfactuals When DID Fails

1 guideOpen topic →

TMLE

Latest: Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation: Doubly Robust, Not Doubly Forgiving

7 guidesOpen topic →

Target Trial Emulation

Latest: Heterogeneous Treatment Effects: Validate the Average Effect Before Trusting the Subgroups

2 guidesOpen topic →

Time-Varying Confounding

Latest: Time-Varying Confounding: When Yesterday's Treatment Changes Today's Confounder

10 guidesOpen topic →

Trial Design

Latest: Futility Stopping in Clinical Trials: When “No Signal Yet” Starts Pretending the Question Is Answered

1 guideOpen topic →

Trial Interpretation

Latest: Principal Stratification: Estimating Effects When Post-Treatment Variables Matter

3 guidesOpen topic →

Unmeasured Confounding

Latest: Proximal Causal Inference: What to Do When Unmeasured Confounding Is Still on the Table

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