goodthingswithdata.com

Data practice, methods, and techniques

Published on this site

2026-09-26

I love learning, and I love discovery, and I love sharing examples where I learned and discovered. This domain cuts across my entire career, from my doctoral dissertation and my first major presentations at CDC, through presentations on small data, machine learning, and data visuals, to recent LinkedIn posts on agentic tools.

121 works filed here — long-form 1 · presentation 91 · publication 9 · short-form 20. 33 prepared, 24 published on this site so far.

Selected works

All 33 citable works filed here are in the works index.

In this domain

year form subdomain work
1997 publication data-practice pu_1997_heilig_u-process-dissertation — An empirical process approach to U-processes of increasing degree
2001 publication data-practice pu_2001_heilig_u-process-limit-theorems — Limit theorems for the infinite-degree U-process
2002 presentation data-practice pr_20020711_statistical-decisions_eis
2005 publication data-practice pu_2005_heilig_leveraging-chance — Leveraging chance in HIV research
2005 publication data-practice pu_2005_lyles_extending-mcnemar — Extending McNemar’s test: Estimation and inference when paired binary outcome data are misclassified
2015 presentation data-practice pr_20151029_dashes-dots_rug
2018 presentation data-practice pr_20181119_ml-ph-primer
2019 presentation data-practice pr_20191024_all-your-base-r_rug
2019 publication data-practice pu_2019_garcia_opioid-prescribing-rates — Opioid prescribing rates in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan counties among primary care providers using an electronic health record system — United States, 2014–2017
2019 publication data-practice pu_2019_lee_autism-ml-comparison — A comparison of machine learning algorithms for the surveillance of autism spectrum disorder
2019 publication data-practice pu_2019_lee_chief-complaint-rnn — Chief complaint classification with recurrent neural networks
2022 presentation data-practice pr_20220419_composing-graphics-literary_atsdr-grow
2024 publication data-practice pu_2024_schultz_malaria-serology-pca — Principal component analysis of the serological response to Plasmodium falciparum using a multiplex bead-based assay in Nigeria
2025 long-form data-practice lf_20251031_essay_data-in-mmwr
2025 short-form data-practice sf_20251106_li-pulse_data-related-resources
2025 short-form data-practice sf_20251110_li-post_how-learners-read-data
2025 short-form data-practice sf_20251202_li-post_data-mmwr-4-1-sources
2025 short-form data-practice sf_20251209_li-post_data-mmwr-5-1-methods
2025 short-form data-practice sf_20251216_li-post_data-mmwr-5-2-describe
2026 publication data-practice pu_2026_habarta_grants-customer-experience — Designing better experiences: A customer-driven approach to improvements across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants management lifecycle
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260106_li-post_data-mmwr-5-3-compare
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260113_li-post_data-mmwr-5-4-adjust
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260118_li-pulse_still-learning-to-read
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260120_li-post_data-mmwr-5-5-conclusions
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260127_li-post_data-mmwr-5-6-tables
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260203_li-post_data-mmwr-5-7-figures
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260210_li-post_data-mmwr-6-1-interpret
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260217_li-post_data-mmwr-6-2-impact
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260224_li-post_data-mmwr-6-3-context
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260303_li-post_data-mmwr-7-1-additional
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260505_li-post_open-online-text
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260525_li-post_ai-slop-linkedin-solution
2026 short-form data-practice sf_20260825_li-post_finding-nemo

88 further works are filed here without a render — not cite-only, simply not yet prepared.

Crossings

Measured from the citation bridge, not asserted — presentations span, publications are pinned, and this is where that shows.

Reaching out — 4 deck(s) filed here cite 17 works in 4 other domain(s).

deck cites in strength
pr_20151029_dashes-dots_rug pu_2012_heilig_speeding-public-health-science — Speeding up public health science: Reducing processing time under the Paperwork Reduction Act regs high
pr_20151029_dashes-dots_rug pu_2013_auld_tst-clinical-presentation — Association between tuberculin skin test result and clinical presentation of tuberculosis disease tb-find med
pr_20191024_all-your-base-r_rug pu_2019_yuen_tb-casefinding-efficiency — Optimizing the efficiency of tuberculosis active case-finding in health facilities and communities tb-find high
pr_20151029_dashes-dots_rug pu_2021_song_diagnose-pediatric-tb — Sensitive and feasible specimen collection and testing strategies for diagnosing tuberculosis in young children tb-find med
pr_20191024_all-your-base-r_rug pu_2021_song_diagnose-pediatric-tb — Sensitive and feasible specimen collection and testing strategies for diagnosing tuberculosis in young children tb-find high
pr_20220419_composing-graphics-literary_atsdr-grow pu_2021_song_diagnose-pediatric-tb — Sensitive and feasible specimen collection and testing strategies for diagnosing tuberculosis in young children tb-find high
pr_20151029_dashes-dots_rug pu_2009_dorman_moxifloxacin-substitution — Substitution of moxifloxacin for isoniazid during intensive phase treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis tb-trials med
pr_20151029_dashes-dots_rug pu_2014_reves_intermittent-tb-isoniazid — Intermittent tuberculosis treatment for patients with isoniazid intolerance or drug resistance tb-trials med
pr_20220419_composing-graphics-literary_atsdr-grow pu_2014_reves_intermittent-tb-isoniazid — Intermittent tuberculosis treatment for patients with isoniazid intolerance or drug resistance tb-trials high
pr_20020711_statistical-decisions_eis pu_2001_phelps_hiv-cancer-incidence — Cancer incidence in women with or at risk for HIV women-hlth-hiv high
pr_20151029_dashes-dots_rug pu_2001_phelps_hiv-cancer-incidence — Cancer incidence in women with or at risk for HIV women-hlth-hiv med
pr_20151029_dashes-dots_rug pu_2004_paramsothy_vaginal-cytology-hysterectomy — Abnormal vaginal cytology in HIV-infected and at-risk women after hysterectomy women-hlth-hiv med
pr_20220419_composing-graphics-literary_atsdr-grow pu_2004_paramsothy_vaginal-cytology-hysterectomy — Abnormal vaginal cytology in HIV-infected and at-risk women after hysterectomy women-hlth-hiv high
pr_20220419_composing-graphics-literary_atsdr-grow pu_2006_anderson_pap-test-accuracy — Accuracy of Papanicolaou test among HIV-infected women women-hlth-hiv med
pr_20020711_statistical-decisions_eis pu_2007_tohill_nutritional-biomarkers-gynecologic — Nutritional biomarkers associated with gynecological conditions among US women with or at risk of HIV infection women-hlth-hiv high
pr_20151029_dashes-dots_rug pu_2007_tohill_nutritional-biomarkers-gynecologic — Nutritional biomarkers associated with gynecological conditions among US women with or at risk of HIV infection women-hlth-hiv med
pr_20151029_dashes-dots_rug pu_2012_millett_hiv-black-msm-disparities — Comparisons of disparities and risks of HIV infection in black and other men who have sex with men in Canada, UK, and USA: a meta-analysis women-hlth-hiv med

Cited, not served

Nothing in this domain is cite-only.

Hooks

5 of the 36 closed hooks sit on work filed here — Chad’s own first person, published as written.

pu_2005_heilig_leveraging-chance · tier full · ready

I led and co-wrote this chapter at the invitation of my graduate school advisor, Deb Nolan, who was an editor of the compiled volume. I worked closely with Betsy Hill to develop the statistics/HIV through-line.

pu_2019_garcia_opioid-prescribing-rates · tier full · ready

The analysis behind this report presented challenges of scale: We had to work with over 100 million records on site-issued laptops with 20 GB RAM. To prepare, Scott and I simulated data at scale and refine analytic methods that could work with that scale under constrained memory. Then, when the whole process completed and i rendered the figures in R, the MMWR editorial staff required me to re-implement the figure in Excel. (Gah!) This project was an object lesson in technical constraints all the way through.

pu_2019_lee_autism-ml-comparison · tier abstract+ · ready

This manuscript is cited in 20181119_machine-learning-public-health-primer as an example of comparing machine learning models of differing architecture.

pu_2019_lee_chief-complaint-rnn · tier abstract+ · ready

This manuscript is cited in 20181119_machine-learning-public-health-primer as an example of recurrent neural networks.

pu_2026_habarta_grants-customer-experience · tier abstract+ · ready

I designed a weighting scheme to support CDC-internal analyses of the data in this manuscript, delivered in a presentation titled “Weight Weight … Please tell me!”