If you find this research useful, I would be interested in hearing about how you are using group testing
(a.k.a., pooled testing)! Please send me an e-mail at
chris@chrisbilder.com. Most of this research is performed jointly with
Dr. Joshua M. Tebbs and
Dr. Christopher S. McMahan.
The presentation "Strategies for pooling in array testing configurations
with multiplex assays," by Bilder, Tebbs, and McMahan, won the American Statistical Association's
Statistical Significance Poster
Award at the Joint Statistical Meetings in 2019; this award is given by the Scientific and Public Affairs
Advisory Committee;
"Statistical Significance" piece constructed for the
poster: Bilder-Tebbs-McMahan-StatSig.pdf
Are you a student interested in learning more about the group testing
research problem? If so, here are introductory resources on it:
Bilder, C. and McMahan, C.
"JUST GROUP IT. Group testing for identification," Invited special
presentation, Joint Statistical Meetings, August 6, 2020; Philadelphia,
PA.
Nebraska Today story about the research for NIH award R01 AI121351
Bilder, C. "Turning data into knowledge to solve sci-fi problems," Departmental seminar,
Department of Statistics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, September 2, 2009; Lincoln, NE.
Bilder, C. (2009). Human or Cylon? Group Testing on Battlestar Galactica.
Chance 22(3), 46-50.
St. Ville, M., McMahan, C., Bible, J., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C.
(2024). Bayesian additive regression trees for group testing data.
Submitted for publication.
McMahan, C., Joyner, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. (2024). A
mixed effects Bayesian regression model for multivariate group testing
data. Submitted for publication.
Bilder, C., Hitt, B., Biggerstaff, B., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C.,
(2023). binGroup2: Statistical tools for infection identification via
group testing. The R Journal
15(4), 21-36.
Mokalled, S., McMahan, C., Brown, D., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C.
(2021). Incorporating the dilution effect in group testing regression: A
new approach. Statistics in Medicine 40(11), 2540-2555.
Joyner, C., McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. (2020). From
mixed effects modeling to spike and slab variable selection: A Bayesian
regression model for group testing data. Biometrics 76(3),
913-923.
Hitt, B., Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. (2019). The objective
function controversy for group testing: Much ado about nothing? Statistics in Medicine
38(24), 4912-4923.
Wang, D., McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. (2018). Group testing case identification with
biomarker information. Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 122, 156-166.
Warasi, M., McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. (2017).
Group testing regression models with dilution submodels. Statistics in Medicine 36(30), 4860-4872.
Warasi, M., Tebbs, J., McMahan, C., and Bilder, C. (2016).
Estimating the prevalence of multiple diseases from two-stage hierarchical pooling.
Statistics in Medicine
35(21), 3581-3864.
Black, M., Bilder, C., and Tebbs, J. (2015).
Optimal retesting configurations for hierarchical group testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society:
Series C (Applied Statistics) 64(4), 693-710.
web_examples.R - Code to duplicate a few examples from Sections 3 and 4
Tebbs, J., McMahan, C., and Bilder, C. (2013). Two-stage hierarchical group
testing for multiple infections with application to the Infertility Prevention Project.
Biometrics 69(4), 1064-1073.
McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. (2013). Regression models for group testing data with pool
dilution effects. Biostatistics 14(2), 284-298.
Application.R - Fit the
model; Notes: 1) Additional code is given to simulate a data set and 2) We
do not provide examples of estimating the biomarker distribution
Bilder, C. and Tebbs, J. (2012). Pooled testing procedures for screening high volume clinical
specimens in heterogeneous populations. Statistics in Medicine
31(27), 3261-3268.
Histograms of the estimated individual probabilities
Bilder, C. and Tebbs, J. (2011). Informative Retesting Procedures to Assay High Volume
Clinical Specimens. Paper for the 58th World Statistics Congress of the International Statistical
Institute.
Histograms of the estimated individual probabilities
Bilder, C. and Tebbs, J. (2009). Bias, efficiency, and agreement for
group-testing regression models.Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation 79(1), 67-80.
Bilder, C. and Tebbs, J. (2005). Empirical Bayesian estimation of the disease transmission probability in
multiple-vector-transfer designs.Biometrical Journal 47(4), 502-516.
RB_RE.R - Finds the relative bias and relative efficiency
swallow1985.txt - Values of
p, n, and s in Table 1 of Swallow (1985)
Coverage.R - Calculates the coverage levels for equal-tail, HPD,
and Wald intervals; Summary of the coverage
Ornaghi.R - Calculates the estimates for the example from Ornaghi et al. (Maydica,
1999)
Tebbs, J. and Bilder, C. (2004). Confidence interval procedures for the probability of disease transmission in
multiple-vector-transfer designs. Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics
9(1), 75-90.
Ornaghi_example_revised5.R - Calculates the confidence intervals
for the example from Ornaghi et al. (Maydica, 1999)
Journal articles without supplementary material
Fang, L., Hu, T., Li, S., Wang, L., McMahan, C., and Tebbs, J.
(2024). Probit time-to-event regression for misclassified group testing
data.
Submitted for publication.
Li, S., Hu, T., Wang, L., McMahan, C., and Tebbs, J. (2024).
Regression analysis of group-tested current status data.
Biometrika
111(3), 1047-1061.
Warasi, M., Tebbs, J., McMahan, C., and Bilder, C. (2023).
Estimating the prevalence of two or more diseases using outcomes from
multiplex group testing.
Biometrical Journal 65(7), 1-14.
Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. (2021). Discussion on "Is
Group Testing Ready for Prime-Time in Disease Identification". Statistics in Medicine
40(17), 3881-3886.
Bilder, C., Iwen, P., and Abdalhamid, B. (2021). Pool size selection
when testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Clinical Infectious Diseases
72(6), 1104-1105.
Abdalhamid, B., Bilder, C., Garrett, J., and Iwen, P. (2020). Cost
effectiveness of sample pooling for SARS-CoV-2 testing. The Journal
of Infection in Developing Countries 14(10), 1136-1137.
Bilder, C., Iwen, P., Abdalhamid, B., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C.
(2020). Tests in short supply? Try group testing. Significance 17(3), 15-16.
Abdalhamid, B., Bilder, C., McCutchen, E., Hinrichs, S., Koepsell,
S., and Iwen, P. (2020). Assessment of specimen pooling to conserve SARS
CoV-2 testing resources. American Journal of Clinical Pathology
153(6), 715-718.
McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. (2015). Rejoinder to "A note on the evaluation of group testing algorithms in the presence of misclassification."
Biometrics 72(1), 303-304.
Zhang, B., Bilder, C., and Tebbs, J. (2013). Group
testing regression model estimation when case identification is a goal. Biometrical Journal
55(2), 173-189.
Black, M., Bilder, C., and Tebbs, J. (2012). Group
testing in heterogeneous populations by using halving algorithms. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C (Applied Statistics)
61(2), 277-290.
Chen, P., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. (2009). Global Goodness-of-fit for Group Testing Regression Models.
Statistics in Medicine 28(23), 2912-2928.
Tebbs, J. and Bilder, C. (2006). Hypothesis tests for and against a simple order among proportions
estimated by pooled testing. Biometrical Journal 48(5), 792-804.
Bilder, C. (2005). Group testing model estimation and inference.
2005 Proceedings of the American
Statistical Association, Biometrics Section [CD-ROM], Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association, 177-182.
Bilder, C. and Tebbs, J. (2004). Empirical Bayesian estimation of the disease transmission probability in
multiple-vector-transfer designs. 2004Proceedings of the American Statistical Association, Biometrics Section [CD-ROM], Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association,
277-284.
Tebbs, J., Bilder, C., and Moser, B.
(2003). An Empirical Bayes Group-Testing Approach to Estimating Small Proportions.
Communications in Statistics: Theory and Methods 32(5), 983-995.
Bilder, C. "Group testing complexity," Department of Statistics, Iowa
State University, December 2, 2024; Ames, IA.
Bilder, C., Nguyen, M., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "How complex is
pooled testing for STI detection? A new metric to evaluate its
implementation," STI Prevention Conference, September 17, 2024; Atlanta, GA.
Bilder, C., Nguyen, M., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "The complexity
of pooled testing for infectious disease detection," Royal Statistical
Society International Conference, September 3, 2024; Brighton, England.
Nguyen, M., Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C.
"Time considerations for group testing implementation," Joint Statistical Meetings, August 6, 2024; Portland, OR.
Porter, E., McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C.
"Gradient boosting for group testing data," Joint Statistical Meetings, August 5, 2024; Portland, OR.
Nguyen, M., Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C.
"Specimen pooling: How many stages are too much?" WNAR/IMS Meeting, June 11, 2024; Fort Collins, CO.
Hitt, B., Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C.
"Enhancing testing capacity: Statistical approaches to disease detection using group testing," WNAR/IMS Meeting, June 11, 2024; Fort Collins, CO.
McMahan, C., St. Ville, M., Bible, J., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C.,
"Bayesian additive regression trees for group testing data," WNAR/IMS Meeting, June 11, 2024; Fort Collins, CO.
Das, P., Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C.
"Group testing with incomplete block designs and imperfect tests," WNAR/IMS Meeting, June 10, 2024; Fort Collins, CO.
Hitt, B., Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "Statistical tools
for infection identification via group testing," Conference on
Statistical Practice, February 29, 2024; New Orleans, LA.
Bilder, C., Nguyen, M., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "A new metric to
evaluate algorithm complexity for group testing," WNAR/IMS Meeting, June
19, 2023; Anchorage, AK.
McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. "A mixed effects Bayesian
regression model for multivariate group testing data," IBS ENAR Meeting,
March 21, 2023; Nashville, TN.
Nguyen, M., Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "Expected number
of stages for hierarchical group testing algorithms," IBS ENAR Meeting,
March 19, 2023; Nashville, TN.
Bilder, C. "Group testing for identifying cases of COVID-19:
Opportunities and challenges," Panelist, IBS ENAR Meeting, March 16,
2021; Baltimore, MD.
Bilder, C., Hitt, B., Benfer, J., Blaney, K., Carter, B., Eveland,
K., McMahan, C., and Tebbs, J. "To pool or not to pool? A web-based
Shiny app to help laboratories make the specimen pooling decision," STD
Prevention Conference, September 2020; Atlanta, GA.
Bilder, C., Hitt, B., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. “A Shiny app for
making the specimen pooling decision,” UseR! July 2020; St. Louis, MO.
(Conference cancelled due to COVID-19)
Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. “Sexually transmitted
disease detection using array testing algorithms with multiplex assays,”
Innovations in Design, Analysis, and Dissemination: Frontiers in
Biostatistics and Data Science, April 2020; Overland Park, KS.
(Conference cancelled due to COVID-19)
Bilder, C. "Infectious disease detection with multiplex assays and
specimen pooling in array configurations," Invited seminar, Department
of Biostatistics, University of Nebraska Medical Center, February 28,
2020; Omaha, NE.
Mokalled, S., McMahan, C., Brown, D., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C.
“Acknowledging the dilution effect in group testing regression: A new
approach,” Contributed paper, IBS ENAR meeting, March 24, 2020;
Nashville, TN. (Student travel award winning paper)
Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "Strategies for pooling in array testing configurations
with multiplex assays," Joint Statistical Meetings, July 30, 2019;
Denver, CO. (American Statistical Association's Statistical Significance Poster Award winner)
Bilder, C., Hitt, B., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C.
"A user-friendly Shiny web application for choosing pool sizes when testing pooled
specimens,"
Association of Public Health Laboratories Annual Meeting,
June 4, 2019; St. Louis, MO.
Bilder, C. "What if‽"
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Iowa,
March 14, 2019; Iowa City, IA.
Bilder, C. "What if‽"
Department of Statistics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
January 23, 2019; Lincoln, NE.
Bilder, C. "What if‽"
Department of Statistics, Kansas State University,
November 1, 2018; Manhattan, KS.
Hitt, B., Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "The optimal group size controversy for infectious disease testing:
Much ado about nothing‽," Royal Statistical Society International Conference,
September 6, 2018; Cardiff, Wales.
Tebbs, J., McMahan, C., and Bilder, C. "Pooling for simultaneous detection of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria
gonorrhoeae is cost efficient and accurate,"
STD Prevention Conference, August 29, 2018; Washington, DC.
Hitt, B., Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "Optimal testing configurations for group testing,"
Joint Statistical Meetings, July 31, 2018; Vancouver, BC.
Hitt, B., Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "Optimal group testing algorithms for infectious disease detection with the binGroup package,"
UseR!, July 13, 2018; Brisbane, Australia.
Hou, P., Tebbs, J., Bilder, C., and McMahan, C. "Hierarchical group testing for multiple infections,"
International Biometric Conference, July 10, 2018; Barcelona, Spain.
Joyner, C., McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. "From mixed-effects modeling to spike and slab variable selection: a Bayesian regression,"
IBS ENAR meeting, March 28, 2018; Atlanta, GA.
Mokalled, S., McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. "Acknowledging the dilution effect in group testing regression: a new approach,"
IBS ENAR meeting, March 28, 2018; Atlanta, GA.
McMahan, C., Liu, Y., Tebbs, J., Bilder, C., and Gallagher, C."
A Bayesian generalized additive model for group testing data,"
IBS ENAR meeting, March 26, 2018; Atlanta, GA.
Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "Hierarchical group testing with multiplex assays in heterogeneous populations,"
Royal Statistical Society International Conference,
September 6, 2017; Glasgow, Scotland.
Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "Hierarchical group testing with multiplex assays in heterogeneous populations,"
Joint Conference on Biometrics & Biopharmaceutical Statistics,
August 30, 2017; Vienna, Austria.
Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and McMahan, C. "Informative group testing for multiplex assays,"
Joint Statistical Meetings, July 31, 2017; Baltimore, MD.
Tebbs, J., McMahan, C., Hanson, T., and Bilder, C.
"Bayesian regression for group testing data," Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture, April 24, 2017; Manhattan, KS.
Mou, X., Tebbs, J., McMahan, C., and Bilder, C. "Back-end disease screening using information theory,"
IBS ENAR meeting, March 15, 2017; Washington, DC.
McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. "Bayesian regression of group testing data,"
IBS ENAR meeting, March 12, 2017; Washington, DC.
Warasi, M., Tebbs, J., McMahan, C., and Bilder, C. "Using hierarchical group testing to estimate the prevalence of multiple diseases,"
IBS ENAR meeting, March 12, 2017; Washington, DC.
Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., McMahan, C., and Hitt, B. "Objective functions for group testing,"
International Biometric Conference, July 15, 2016; Victoria, BC.
Hou, P., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C. "Hierarchical group testing for multiple infections,"
IBS ENAR meeting, March 17, 2015; Miami, FL. (Student travel award winning paper)
Tebbs, J., McMahan, C., and Bilder, C., "Group testing for multiple infections with application to the Infertility
Prevention Project," Joint Statistical Meetings, August 4, 2013; Montreal, QC.
McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., Hanson, T., and Bilder,
C., "Bayesian regression models for group testing data," Joint Statistical Meetings, August 4, 2013; Montreal, QC.
Black, M., Bilder, C., and Tebbs, J. "Optimal
retesting configurations for hierarchical group testing," Joint Statistical Meetings, August 4, 2013; Montreal, QC.
McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C.,
"Regression models for group testing data with pool dilution effects,"
IBS ENAR meeting, March 11, 2013; Orlando, FL.
Zhang, B., Bilder, C., and Tebbs, J.,
"Incorporating retests into group testing regression model estimation,"
Joint Statistical Meetings, August 2012; San Diego, CA.
McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C.,
"Two-dimensional informative array testing," IBS ENAR
meeting, April 2, 2012; Washington, DC.
McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C.,
"Regression models for group testing data with pool dilution effects,"
IBS ENAR meeting, April 1, 2012; Washington, DC.
Peng, Y., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C., "Dorfman
group screening with multiple infections," IBS ENAR
meeting, April 1, 2012; Washington, DC.
Zhang, B., Bilder, C., and Tebbs, J. "Group
testing regression models for multiple traits,"
Joint Statistical Meetings, August 2, 2011; Miami Beach, FL.
Bilder, C., Iwen, P., and Tebbs, J.,
"Alternative pooled testing procedures to evaluate high volume clinical
specimens," Association of Public Health
Laboratories Annual Meeting, June 6, 2011; Omaha, NE.
Bilder, C. and Tebbs, J., "Using pooled testing
to screen heterogeneous populations," Thirteenth Biennial CDC Symposium on Statistical Methods, May 24, 2011;
Decatur, GA.
McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C.
"Informative Dorfman screening," IBS ENAR meeting,
March 22, 2011; Miami, FL. (Student travel award winning paper)
Black, M., Bilder, C., and Tebbs, J. "Group testing in heterogeneous populations using halving algorithms,"
2010 Joint Statistical Meetings, August 3, 2010;
Vancouver, BC.
McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., and Bilder, C.
"Informative array screening," 2010 Joint Statistical
Meetings, August 2, 2010; Vancouver, BC.
Bilder, C., Zhang, B., Schaarschmidt, F., and
Tebbs, J. "binGroup: a package for group testing," UseR! 2010, July 21, 2010; Gaithersburg, MD.
Bilder, C., Tebbs, J., and Chen, P. "Informative retesting," 2009 Joint Statistical
Meetings, August 4, 2009; Washington, DC.
Tebbs, J., Chen, P., and Bilder, C. "Inference for variance components in generalized linear mixed models for
pooled binary response," 2009 IBS ENAR meeting, March
18, 2009; San Antonio, TX.
Bilder, C. "Human or Cylon? Group testing on the
Battlestar Galactica to save humanity," Department of
Statistics, Kansas State University, November 14, 2008; Manhattan, KS.
Bilder, C. "Cylon detection through group
testing," Department of Statistics and Actuarial
Science, Simon Fraser University, April 13, 2007; Burnaby, BC.
Bilder, C. "Just group it!" Department of Preventive and
Societal Medicine and Department of Internal Medicine Section of Infectious
Diseases, University of Nebraska Medical Center, November 17, 2005; Omaha, NE.
Bilder, C. "Just
group it!" Department of Statistics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
September 7, 2005; Lincoln, NE.
Tebbs, J. and Bilder, C. "Confidence
interval procedures for the probability of disease transmission in
multiple-vector-transfer designs," 2003 Joint
Statistical Meetings, August 5, 2003; San Francisco, CA.
Bilder, C. and Tebbs, J. "Estimating the
disease-transmission probability in multiple-vector transfer designs,"
Oklahoma Chapter of the American Statistical
Association, April 10, 2003; Stillwater, OK.
