Had a lecture the other day which talked about "measurement error" validity and reliability." One of the concepts covered was the measurement error of categorical data, "usually referred to as misclassification." It went on to talk about the analysis of misclassification using a two by two matrix; however, it did it in a way that is extremely confusing and, unfortunately, very standard amongst medical teaching: what I call 'the a/(a+c) and b/(b+d) method'.

I wrote a little while ago about the UK Medical Careers Research Group survey of 1999 medical school graduates, and how I had answered (most of) the questions. I also mentioned that I'd been taking part in it for the past however many years - well, we've been surveyed a number of times. Now - revelation! - I was tidying up just the other day and came across the form from 2004-05. So I guess I didn't send it in. Is it now too late? Anyway, some of it I'd filled in, other bits are obvious, so I've included it below...

Introduction

I received this survey in the mail today - "Calling all 1999 Graduates" - it said. I've taken part (kind of: I can't remember returning all the forms) in the past surveys, and this is the most recent one to come out. I guess in part that I have always been ambiguous about the responses: it's very hard to know how to reply to a single-response questionnaire, when really you (one) wants to put several choices, and justify them.... Anyway, am filling in the current one and, as usual, there's not enough space, so thought I'd put additional comments on here.

House-sitting a flat in the city, large garden with grass and trees and railway at the end, it's a good place to sit and work during the day. Added bonus are the 3 eggs daily provided by my companions, the chickens. Well, was meant to be: was shown how to retrieve the eggs from within the "egg-loo" - essentially a chicken coop, allegedly designed and marketed by a company called OmLet who come and install it for you - on the first day by my friend (a relative of the owner)... returned into the apartment and back to the light (it was night outside) to discover his arm was alive with crawling things: very small, who knows what? Well, we figured that out quickly when we found a tube of "Red mite powder" on a shelf . Red mites? They're only little, but vicious, apparently - google returns a very informative pdf which explains that they are also known as Dermanyssus gallinae, a renowned chicken parasite that is seemingly impossible to eradicate and infects chicken farms (and other birds) throughout the country.

New York, New York, on the way to the ECMO conference in Colorado - an excuse to go skiing? Travel was proving difficult, so I ended up getting a stopover in NYC as I was able to catch up with family as well (oh, and buy some essentials that I'd kind of been putting off for a while in terms of clothing: underwear!), and see a friend or two...

Spent the afternoon at the International Center of Photography museum where there were a number of shows on, all due to end tomorrow. The one that I'd heard about was called ¡Che! Revolution and Commerce and was based upon the iconographic image that Alberto Korda had originally taken. Unfortunately, I'd misread it or misinterpreted or something, and thought that it would be an exhibit of other (Cuba) photos by Korda but instead it was a mish-mash of art work by various different people around the world, in different situations, that were based upon that same image. Examples including various Cuban souvenirs, an icon of Christ designed to replicate Che (as an attempt by the Church of England to entice young people back, or into, religion, and make it appear "cool" again), a construct of Che from the corporate emblems that have come to dominate the Western world (and most of elsewhere also) - and no doubt one day who will try to dominate Cuba too.

I posted up some information from a previous website: http://travelsoforion.net/medicalnotes/FOAD2003/contents.html