[R] I have a question on nomograms.

[Frank E Harrell Jr]

(Ted Harding) wrote:
> On 25-Mar-10 17:44:55, R Heberto Ghezzo, Dr wrote:
>> On the same topic but from a different perspective. A Nomogram or
>> better a Line Aligned Nomogram is a graph with 2 or more scales,
>> maybe linear where by alignig values in each scale you can read
>> values in the other scale. The relationship can be linear, then
>> the scales are straight lines, or functional then the scale is
>> curvilinear or even a bidimensional surface with 2 grids.
> 
> This is precisely what I normally understand by "nonogram".
> Hence I was initially puzzled by ding ding's original query, asking
> about "a nomogram for bladder cancer". This got me googling, and
> I found the sort of thing you can try out at
> 
>  http://www.nomogram.org
> 
> They call this sort of interface "nomogram" too, and you can have
> a go at the one they offer for bladder cancer. This is not a
> graphical nomogram in the sense that you describe, rather it is
> a form-filling interface with boxes into which you insert
> information, and then press the button.

It is very curious that a site named nomogram.org would not contain a 
single nomogram.  I have pointed this out to the author of the site, who 
maintains that disagreements with dictionaries are inconsequential.

Frank

> 
> Hence my question, in my original response, to ding ding as to
> whether this was the sort of thing he means (rather than the
> graphical one).
> 
> Until we hear further from him about what he precisely means,
> I don't think it it worth while anyone spending effort on chasing
> solutions to what may be the wrong interpretation (either the
> graphical or the form -- we don't know).
> 
>> Is there any program in R, S, C, Fortran, etc to compute such
>> a graph. I know there is an old book by Ott or something like
>> that in Nomograms but I could not find it.
>> Does anybody knows anything about constructing LAN? Any books or
>> already rograms to do it?
>> There are very usefull for a 2 digits solution and they can be
>> pin in the wall!
>> Thanks for any info
>> R.Heberto Ghezzo
>> McGill University
> 
> Constructing a good nomogram can demand considerable skill in
> combinatorial art! The few I have made in my time were not done
> quickly, nor did they come out well first time (nor second ... ).
> I've always constructed such things "by hand" (good layout is
> very impotant), with computer support for computation of relevant
> numerical values. So I can't suggest general-purpose nomogram
> generating software (and I doubt it would work well in many cases).
> 
> Ted.
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
> Date: 25-Mar-10  
-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chairman        School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University