Dear ASA:
Lara Harmon and I have been thinking about ways to incorporate JASA into ASA Connect.
About a year and a half ago, I switched from receiving JASA by mail to getting it online. But,
I still miss getting it in the mail. There is something fun about skimming the back cover and
opening it at random. And, sadly, I found no "fun" online equivalent. So, we thought we would
highlight JASA in ASA Connect as an alternative to spark online discussion. As part of that, we
are hoping to get short article synopses of recent JASA articles from ASA members posted to
ASA Connect. So, I encourage all of you to join in and just have fun with this. I'll go first.
Here is my review of <Bayesian nonparametric estimation for dynamic treatment regimes with sequential transition times by Xu, Mueller, Wahed & Thall>.
If you went to JSM last year in Chicago, you may have noticed that precision medicine is a
very hot topic now. I'm still learning about it. And this is a great paper for anyone interested
in precision medicine. This article was discussed at JSM. But, it was on the last day in the last
session and attendance was sparse. I really enjoyed the discussion and I could not wait to see
the article which is out now. And it is not just an article: there are three Comments and a
Rejoinder. Of course, this article is no quick read: 30 pages in all. It took me several days and
there are still some references that I need to track down. That is not a criticism in any way; this
is to be expected of an excellent JASA article such as it is.
The other part of the article that I liked is the Bayesian nonparametric methodology presented.
The description of the method was very well done. However, to perform calculations such as
these, is no simple undertaking. The authors give a link to the software they used which I have
interpreted as <http://www.ams.jhu.edu/~yxu70>. Sadly, I could not find their software at that
location.
Rodney Sparapani, PhD
Director, Wisconsin Chapter of the ASA