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This message has been cross posted to the following eGroups: Statistics in Epidemiology Section and Statistical Consulting Section .
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Hi, folks, have any of you encountered the phrase "statistical workout" before? If so, can you tell me what it means? I have never seen the phrase before. But as best I can figure out from Google and Bing, some people use it to mean the same thing as statistical analysis while other people use it to mean something different from statistical analysis.

For context, the phrase "statistical workout" appears in an RFA for the AIDS malignancies consortium, located at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-14-502.html. Down in Sub-section H. Statistics and Data Management Center (SDMC), the following language appears:  

In this section, describe the following:

• Operational, procedural, and overall management plans for the SDMC.
• Biostatistics and data management approaches planned to be used in AMC multi-site clinical trials.
• Any innovative aspects and plans relevant to data collection, processing, statistical workout and data integration, quality control, data related to the safety of the patients, etc.    
• Proposed procedures for managing both clinical and laboratory data, including database architecture and plans for improvements of the relevant aspects of the information technology system used.

- - - - - - -
As I indicated above, this phrase is new to me, and it's unclear to me what it means. Any insights you may have would be much appreciated.

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Eric Siegel
Biostatistician
Univ of Arkansas for Medical Sciences of Biostatistics
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I checked with my daughter who works with AIDS grants in another NIH institute about this. She said that "statistical workout" is not standard phrasing and since it does not also appear in the instructions of that RFA, it may just be a typo. Otherwise, it is a case of a non-statistician writing about statistics (my opinion). She suggests that you interpret the phrase as asking you to describe any innovative methods that you propose to use. Also, you can contact the grants contact listed in the RFA and ask for clarification, then save that email just in case you are dinged in the review. Hope this helps. ------------------------------------------- Linda Pickle StatNet Consulting, LLC -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 08-19-2014 13:49 From: Eric Siegel Subject: the phrase "statistical workout" This message has been cross posted to the following eGroups: Statistics in Epidemiology Section and Statistical Consulting Section . ------------------------------------------- Hi, folks, have any of you encountered the phrase "statistical workout" before? If so, can you tell me what it means? I have never seen the phrase before. But as best I can figure out from Google and Bing, some people use it to mean the same thing as statistical analysis while other people use it to mean something different from statistical analysis. For context, the phrase "statistical workout" appears in an RFA for the AIDS malignancies consortium, located at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-14-502.html <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-14-502.html>. Down in Sub-section H. Statistics and Data Management Center (SDMC), the following language appears: In this section, describe the following: Operational, procedural, and overall management plans for the SDMC. Biostatistics and data management approaches planned to be used in AMC multi-site clinical trials. Any innovative aspects and plans relevant to data collection, processing, statistical workout and data integration, quality control, data related to the safety of the patients, etc. Proposed procedures for managing both clinical and laboratory data, including database architecture and plans for improvements of the relevant aspects of the information technology system used. - - - - - - - As I indicated above, this phrase is new to me, and it's unclear to me what it means. Any insights you may have would be much appreciated. ------------------------------------------- Eric Siegel Biostatistician Univ of Arkansas for Medical Sciences of Biostatistics -------------------------------------------

I went to Google Scholar and used the exact phrase and it does occur quite frequently in journal articles, mostly it seems of European origin. Of the ones I checked, it seems to be a substitute for "statistical analysis." I also checked with an Italian colleague. She had never heard of the phrase. 

Bob



Original Message:
Sent: 08-20-2014 13:07
From: Linda Pickle
Subject: the phrase "statistical workout"

I checked with my daughter who works with AIDS grants in another NIH institute about this. She said that "statistical workout" is not standard phrasing and since it does not also appear in the instructions of that RFA, it may just be a typo. Otherwise, it is a case of a non-statistician writing about statistics (my opinion). She suggests that you interpret the phrase as asking you to describe any innovative methods that you propose to use. Also, you can contact the grants contact listed in the RFA and ask for clarification, then save that email just in case you are dinged in the review. Hope this helps.

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Linda Pickle
StatNet Consulting, LLC
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Hi, folks, I just wanted to thank you all for your replies, and to give you a little bit in the way of final results.

I followed the lead of Bob Gerzoff and did exactly what he did (see below). Google Scholar turned up 28 occurrences of the phrase "statistical workout" (23 articles, 4 citations, and 1 patent) spanning a 35-year time range from 1979 to 2014. All of them appeared to be of European origin. This numerator appears to be stable upon rerunning the search one week later. I shudder to think of what the corresponding denominator might be: 10 million? 100 million? in the billions?

My PI asked NIH what they meant by the phrase in the RFA. My understanding of what they basically told her was, the RFA had been worked on by several committees with the emphasis being to get the darn thing published so investigators could start writing applications, and they would worry later about dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. This is certainly consistent with Linda Pickle's opinion (see below).

By way of humor, when I first saw the phrase "statistical workout", I immediately thought of exercise routines and physical workouts in the gym. And apparently the physical-fitness marketers are way ahead of me on this.  If you're so motivated, copy-paste http://www.miltonstokes.com/pdfs/press_clip_12.pdf into your browser, and scroll down to the left-hand column of page "164" (the 3rd page). 

Thank you all again for responding to my query.

---Eric 

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Eric Siegel
Biostatistician
Univ of Arkansas for Medical Sciences of Biostatistics
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-20-2014 13:15
From: Robert Gerzoff
Subject: the phrase "statistical workout"

I went to Google Scholar and used the exact phrase and it does occur quite frequently in journal articles, mostly it seems of European origin. Of the ones I checked, it seems to be a substitute for "statistical analysis." I also checked with an Italian colleague. She had never heard of the phrase. 

Bob

Hopping on to the last comment by Eric, check out

mathgym.umbc.edu

for an idea that is welcomed by students widely.

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Nagaraj Neerchal
Professor and Chair
UMBC
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2014 10:37
From: Eric Siegel
Subject: the phrase "statistical workout"

Hi, folks, I just wanted to thank you all for your replies, and to give you a little bit in the way of final results.

I followed the lead of Bob Gerzoff and did exactly what he did (see below). Google Scholar turned up 28 occurrences of the phrase "statistical workout" (23 articles, 4 citations, and 1 patent) spanning a 35-year time range from 1979 to 2014. All of them appeared to be of European origin. This numerator appears to be stable upon rerunning the search one week later. I shudder to think of what the corresponding denominator might be: 10 million? 100 million? in the billions?

My PI asked NIH what they meant by the phrase in the RFA. My understanding of what they basically told her was, the RFA had been worked on by several committees with the emphasis being to get the darn thing published so investigators could start writing applications, and they would worry later about dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. This is certainly consistent with Linda Pickle's opinion (see below).

By way of humor, when I first saw the phrase "statistical workout", I immediately thought of exercise routines and physical workouts in the gym. And apparently the physical-fitness marketers are way ahead of me on this.  If you're so motivated, copy-paste http://www.miltonstokes.com/pdfs/press_clip_12.pdf into your browser, and scroll down to the left-hand column of page "164" (the 3rd page). 

Thank you all again for responding to my query.

---Eric 

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Eric Siegel
Biostatistician
Univ of Arkansas for Medical Sciences of Biostatistics
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-20-2014 13:15
From: Robert Gerzoff
Subject: the phrase "statistical workout"

I went to Google Scholar and used the exact phrase and it does occur quite frequently in journal articles, mostly it seems of European origin. Of the ones I checked, it seems to be a substitute for "statistical analysis." I also checked with an Italian colleague. She had never heard of the phrase. 

Bob

I love the concept of Math Gym and even "statistical workout" in the non-European sense! I recently hired a (student) personal trainer to keep me motivated to exercise and keep me doing the right exercises and to keep me from doing potentially harmful ones. Why wouldn't people pay for statistical workout partners to keep their statistics on the right track?

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Eric Vance
LISA (Virginia Tech's Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis)
Director and Assistant Research Professor
Chair-elect (and 2015 chair) of CNSL
Blacksburg VA, United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2014 10:45
From: Nagaraj Neerchal
Subject: the phrase "statistical workout"


Hopping on to the last comment by Eric, check out

mathgym.umbc.edu

for an idea that is welcomed by students widely.

-------------------------------------------
Nagaraj Neerchal
Professor and Chair
UMBC
-------------------------------------------



Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2014 10:37
From: Eric Siegel
Subject: the phrase "statistical workout"

Hi, folks, I just wanted to thank you all for your replies, and to give you a little bit in the way of final results.

I followed the lead of Bob Gerzoff and did exactly what he did (see below). Google Scholar turned up 28 occurrences of the phrase "statistical workout" (23 articles, 4 citations, and 1 patent) spanning a 35-year time range from 1979 to 2014. All of them appeared to be of European origin. This numerator appears to be stable upon rerunning the search one week later. I shudder to think of what the corresponding denominator might be: 10 million? 100 million? in the billions?

My PI asked NIH what they meant by the phrase in the RFA. My understanding of what they basically told her was, the RFA had been worked on by several committees with the emphasis being to get the darn thing published so investigators could start writing applications, and they would worry later about dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. This is certainly consistent with Linda Pickle's opinion (see below).

By way of humor, when I first saw the phrase "statistical workout", I immediately thought of exercise routines and physical workouts in the gym. And apparently the physical-fitness marketers are way ahead of me on this.  If you're so motivated, copy-paste http://www.miltonstokes.com/pdfs/press_clip_12.pdf into your browser, and scroll down to the left-hand column of page "164" (the 3rd page). 

Thank you all again for responding to my query.

---Eric 

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Eric Siegel
Biostatistician
Univ of Arkansas for Medical Sciences of Biostatistics
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