You are reading Bits & Base Pairs #2!

Welcome to my weekly newsletter where every Friday, you’ll get 5 minutes of bits (comedy and/or computing), base pairs (bioinformatics), and musings on academic medicine.

My goal is to keep these to an abstract length (250 - 500 words).

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BITS

Super Mario

Have you ever wondered if classic video game characters aged? That they might be afflicted by the same common ailments as the rest of us, like back pain? Simon Rich, humorist and former SNL writer, imagines just that scenario in Mario, his Shouts & Murmur’s short story in the New Yorker. If you read this, you will find yourself laughing as a 40-year-old Super Mario seeks out the medical counsel of Dr Mario. Only a few writers get more than a page in the Shouts & Murmurs section, and after you read this short story, you will understand why the author's guidelines don’t apply to Simon Rich.

BASE PAIRS

EHR Phenotyping Standards

Do you think your EHR phenotyping algorithms are shallow? Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to offend you. What I meant to say was “rule-based, deterministic.” Or are they deep, like deep learning, deep? Either way, EHR phenotyping algorithms need to be both transparent and standardized to support cross-institutional biomedical research. In their perspective “Improving reporting standards for phenotyping algorithm in biomedical research: 5 fundamental dimensions,” Wei et al propose complexity, performance, efficiency, implementability, and maintenance as crucial phenotyping algorithm standards.

Thank you for reading and have a fulfilling weekend!

If you have any suggestions for future features as a Bit, Base Pair, or Academic Musing, please respond to this email with your recommendations!

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