Book Reviews

Politics

If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

by Eric Metaxas(c) 2016. The title of this book is stolen from Benjamin Franklin when asked if we were founding a monarchy or a republic. With his classic quick wit, he responded, “A republic… if you can keep it.” This book, by a radio talk show host, comprises a series of lecture-type chapters that admonishes patriotism instead of carelessness towards America. It contains many anecdotes which are interesting, such as that of Nathan Hale’s, “I…

Continue reading

Healthcare Science

The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

by Francis S. Collins(c) 2010  My employer (Vanderbilt University Medical Center) is the world’s leader in implementing the ideas around personalized medicine, so I picked up this audiobook to educate me on what’s going on around me while I drove to and from work. In it, I found interesting stories from patients combined with weighty data from the human genome. Collins maintains a warm bedside manner as well as a writer as he does as…

Continue reading

Biostatistics Software-Technology

R for Data Science: Visualize, Model, Transform, Tidy, and Import Data

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

R for Data Scienceby Hadley Wickham and Garret Grolemund.(c) 2017. If the above quote is the mission of this book, consider the task accomplished. Where most books in computer science fall down in trying to be cute while communicating an educational message, this book addresses the task of education about R squarely, and it does so in a manner that engages the mind with interesting problems. Usually, I skip the exercises sections of most computer…

Continue reading

Science

Translational Research and Clinical Practice: Basic Tools for Medical Decision Making and Self-Learning

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

by Stephen C. Aronoff.(c) 2011. This book was a review – and to some degree, an extension – of medical school for me. I always enjoyed reviewing the medical literature. In fact, it was my favorite part of my medical training and the part I miss the most. I love translating research into clinical advice. Unfortunately, fortune had it that the clinic was not to be my domain, so I sit in the research realm…

Continue reading

Visualization

Data Points: Visualization That Means Something

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

by Nathan Yau.(c) 2013 Data Points reads like a friendly textbook engaged with visualization. It is less concerned with tips and tricks, and more concerned with understanding. For instance, on the neverending debate on pie charts, Yau pleads neutrality. He sees that pie charts havetheir place, albeit a limited one, in the visualization domain. As such, he promotes freedom and the ability to choose above all. There are lots of data that need appropriate visualization in…

Continue reading

Books Healthcare Science Software-Technology

Resources to Explore

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

Essential Biostatistics: A Nonmathematical Approach by Harvey MotulskyFundamentals of Biostatistics by Bernard RosnerR for Data Science: Import, Tidy, Transform, Visualize, and Model Data by Hadley Wickham and Garrett GrolemundThe Art of R Programming: A Tour of Statistical Software Design by Norman MatloffFramingham Heart StudyA History of Public Health by George Rosen and Elizabeth FeePublic Health: A Very Short Introduction by Virginia BerridgeThe History of Global Health: Intervention into the Lives of Other Peoples by Randall M. Packard

Continue reading

Visualization

Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic(c) 2015 Back in my first programming job after college, I was dabbling in graphics for some bit of computer code that analyzed genetic data. I read some works by Edward Tufte, an expert from Yale who made academic munch-meat of visualization data for his career. The verbiage was lofty; the images were inspiring; and I could not figure out how to translate the lofty rhetoric and aesthetics into meaningful graphics and…

Continue reading