R. G. Thomas Lab · UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health

Rigorous biostatistics for clinical trials and applied health research.

Ronald G. Thomas is Professor of Biostatistics at UC San Diego's Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, working on clinical-trial methodology, longitudinal modeling, and reproducible statistical computing.

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Research

Methodological and applied work across clinical-trial design, longitudinal and missing data, and reproducible statistical computing.

Clinical trial design & inference

Adaptive allocation, MMRM power, run-in periods, and multicenter RCT methods for neurology and psychiatry trials; exact procedures, sequential analysis, and error-rate control in multi-endpoint trials.

N-of-1 trials & longitudinal modeling

Nine-paper Statistics in Medicine simulation series on N-of-1 versus parallel-group designs; MMRM specification, robustness to misspecification, and R²-analogues for linear mixed models.

Alzheimer's disease & clinical endpoints

p-tau 217, GFAP trajectories, APOE4 interaction, and MCI-to-AD conversion across ADCS, ADNI, and NACC cohorts; anchor-based MCID estimation for CDR-SB and PSPRS with sample-size implications.

PTSD & military health

Statistical analysis of prazosin RCTs for PTSD nightmares, blast-exposure GFAP biomarkers, and PTSD-to-diabetes causal mediation in veterans.

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Statistical computing & methods

ECF-based and Gaussian mixture estimation; ensemble methods for medication-effects prediction; the zzcollab Docker-and-renv framework and open-source R tools for clinical trial research.

Lab members

A small team focused on biostatistical methodology, clinical trials, and applied health-sciences research.

RGT

Ronald G. Thomas, PhD

Director

Professor, UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health. Statistical methodology for clinical trials, longitudinal data, and applied health-sciences research.

Publications

Peer-reviewed methodological and applied research in biostatistics, clinical trials, and health-sciences research. 402 publications across five domains.

Full publications list

rgtlab.org/research

Searchable list of all 402 publications. Filter by topic, year, and category.

Curriculum Project

A six-volume graduate textbook series in biostatistics, computing, and applied health-sciences research.

R for Biostatistics

A One-Week Boot Camp for incoming graduate students.

Volume 1

Biostatistics Practicum

Reproducible analysis workflows for biostatisticians.

Volume 2

Statistical Computing in the Age of AI

A graduate textbook in biostatistics.

Volume 3

Advanced Statistical Computing in the Age of AI

A graduate textbook in biostatistics.

Volume 4

Applied Generative AI for Health Sciences Research

A graduate textbook.

Volume 5

Applied Statistical Methods for Health Sciences Research

A graduate textbook.

Volume 6

Teaching

Active courses and workshops in biostatistics, statistical computing, and reproducible research at UC San Diego.

Course materials and lecture notes are captured in the Curriculum Project textbooks above; per-course materials are on GitHub.

PHB 228 — Statistical Computing for Biostatistics (UC San Diego School of Public Health). github.com/rgt47/phb228-course
PHB 243b — Practicum in Biostatistics (UC San Diego School of Public Health). github.com/rgt47/b02
PHB 280 — Biostatistics Journal Club (UC San Diego School of Public Health). github.com/rgt47/phb280-journal-club
Workshops — R, Quarto, reproducible-research tooling, and generative-AI in applied health-sciences research.

Software

Open-source R packages, command- line tools, and editor integrations developed for clinical-trial methodology, reproducible research, and statistical computing. All hosted on GitHub.

zzlongplot

Longitudinal plotting with clinical-trials support.

github.com/rgt47/zzlongplot

zztable1

Next-generation summary tables for clinical research.

github.com/rgt47/zztable1

zzpower

Interactive power-analysis calculator for clinical-trial designs.

github.com/rgt47/zzpower

zzvim-R

R integration plugin for Vim and Neovim. Send code to an R session from the editor.

github.com/rgt47/zzvim-R

zzedc

Electronic data capture system for clinical trials.

github.com/rgt47/zzedc

zzcollab

Docker-based research collaboration framework. Reproducible compendia with a single command.

github.com/rgt47/zzcollab

zzrenvcheck

Validate R package dependencies for reproducibility.

github.com/rgt47/zzrenvcheck

zzworld

WORLD test scoring and edit-distance analysis.

github.com/rgt47/zzworld

zzobj2fig

Render any R modelling output as a publication-quality LaTeX or Typst table.

github.com/rgt47/zzobj2fig

nof1power

Power analysis and simulation for N-of-1 trials.

github.com/rgt47/nof1power

zzfisher

Fisher's exact test for r × 2 contingency tables.

github.com/rgt47/zzfisher

zzgit

Interactive

git
                add

/commit/push for zsh, with Conventional Commits wizard and secret scanning.

github.com/rgt47/zzgit

News & updates

Recent activity from the lab — publications, talks, and software.

Jul 2026

Conference. Attending ICOTS12 (International Conference on Teaching Statistics), Brisbane, Australia.

Jun 2026

Research site. New publications list with keyword filtering and nine research-area pages added to the lab site.

May 2026

Manuscripts. Nine-paper N-of-1 simulation series (N-of-1 vs. parallel-group designs for AD and PTSD trials) complete with rendered drafts; targeting Statistics in Medicine.

Apr 2026

Manuscripts. Three manuscripts near submission: the age paradox in Alzheimer's disease (AUROC cross-cohort analysis); CDR-SB MCID and sample size; and concomitant medications and MCI-to-AD progression across ADCS, ADNI, and NACC cohorts.

2026

Publication. Golbe LI & Thomas RG. Minimally clinically important differences for PSPRS subscales in progressive supranuclear palsy. Alzheimer's & Dementia: TRCI.

Blog

Notes on R, statistical computing, and applied biostatistics.

Blog

rgtlab.org/blog

Working notes and short essays.