Professor Emeritus
Departments of Statistics and Public Health Sciences, and the College
- Email:
- r-thisted@uchicago.edu
Research
Ronald Thisted's major research interests are in the areas of biostatistics and epidemiology, statistical computation, and effectiveness of medical interventions. Study regression methods for paired data with ordered categorical outcomes, problems of multiple inference in clinical trials, methods for combining information (meta-analysis) concerning diagnostic tests such as those used in nuclear medicine, and assessment of causal relationships associated with rare but catastrophic events such as sudden death in children. Current work in statistical computation includes data structures for bibliographic databases, electronic publishing, computational aspects of meta-analysis, and improved design of Monte Carlo studies. Works related to health outcomes include comparative assessment of prognoses that result from different treatments for prostate cancer; assessment of effectiveness for prostate-specific antigen tests for screening, diagnosis, and follow-up of prostate cancer; short- and long-term effectiveness of treatments for degenerative disease of the lumbar spine; and relative benefits of SPECT imaging relative to standard diagnostics in epilepsy and dementia.