Professor Joe Abramson, author of WinPepi, passed away, at 92, on February 17th.
The first version of these programs for epidemiologists, composed in collaboration with Eric Peritz (Calculator Programs for the Health Sciences, 1983. Abramson JH and Peritz E), was written for programmable HP calculators. With the advent and growing popularity of personal computers, Joe was introduced to computer programming, and together with Paul Gahlinger translated into DOS and widened the range of the programs (Computer Programs for Epidemiologic Analysis. Gahlinger PM, and Abramson JH, 1993). This PEPI (Programs for EPIdemiologists) collection improved and grew continuously, and later became known in its Windows versions as WinPepi.
Joe, a professor of epidemiology and public health at the Hebrew University and Hadassah faculty of Medicine, was a leader in the field of quantitative Epidemiology and methods of teaching it. His package of computer programs could be seen as an essential component of his trilogy which includes also "Research Methods ("Survey Methods" in earlier versions) in Community Medicine" and "Making Sense of Data". Thus going through the continuum of understanding the nuts and bolts of performing health related research, interpretation of epidemiological data, and easy computer assisted calculations related to them.
Joe had no material profit from WinPepi, which for many years he distributed free of charge through the Brixton Health internet site. He enjoyed writing the programs and had great satisfaction from the knowledge that they were widely used by epidemiologists, practitioners and students around the world. He continued updating existing programs and searching the literature for new statistical procedures which he believed may be helpful if translated to easily used computer programs.
He was always happy to receive questions, corrections and suggestions from users. He remained sharp, curious and active into his 93rd year, and in spite of his physical deterioration was still waiting, a month before his death, for validation of references before uploading a new program for the collection.
Joe left South Africa in 1961 after his pioneering work in needy communities (led by Sidney Kark, together with a team of idealistic professionals) became impossible under the Apartheid regime. He immigrated to Jerusalem where he had a leading role in the development and teaching of COPC (Community Oriented Primary Care).
Joe was a quiet, modest, funny and warm family person. He lost his beloved and loving wife and partner, Eleanor, twenty years ago. He leaves three children - Larry, Howard (Zvi), and Cara, their spouses, children and grandchildren.
Zvi Abramson, Jerusalem, March 5, 2017.
WINPEPI will continue to be available from this site.
Joe Abramson has developed an augmented Windows version (WINPEPI) of the PEPI suite of programs for epidemiologists. You can read a description of WINPEPI (published in Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations) by clicking here. A list of currently available functions and procedures is available here.
The latest update (version 11.65) was posted to this site on Aug. 23, 2016.
Download the latest version of WINPEPI as an executable (.EXE) file (9.7 mb).
The downloaded file will be WinPepiSetup.exe.
Alternatively, you can download it in a ZIP archive :Download the latest version of WINPEPI as a .ZIP archive (9.7 mb)
which you will have to open to access WinPepiSetup.exe.
When you run WinPepiSetup.exe, it will install the latest WINPEPI programs and manuals, and an index to the statistical procedures and programs, in any folder you select. Older versions will be replaced. Follow the instructions, and your desktop will have a portal to the programs and manuals, the index, and relevant Internet sites. No changes are made to the Windows registry.
As a third alternative, if you do not have permission to use an installation program (but can download executable files in a zip file), download WinPepiFiles.zip, which contains all the components of WINPEPI, but no installation program. You will have to open this zip file and copy its contents to a directory of your choice (overwriting any previous versions), and manually put a shortcut to winpepi.exe (the portal program) on your desktop.
Download the WINPEPI files in a ZIP archive (without an installation program) (12.2 mb).
All the programs are 32-bit applications, and will run in any version of Microsoft Windows except Windows 3.xx.
When you run the Winpepi installation program you may be warned that it may harm your computer because it has an "unknown publisher" or is "unrecognized" or "may contain viruses or other malicious code" but there has never been a report of harm caused by running a winpepi installation program.
If Windows blocks the installation program you can click on "More info" and then on "Run anyway".
To avoid problems with administrator rights in recent versions of Windows, all results are now automatically saved in PEPI.TXT in the Winpepi folder, instead of in C:\PEPI.TXT, where older results may still be found.
Here is an idex of WINPEPI functions
The currently available WINPEPI programs are :
COMPARE2.EXE - For comparisons of two independent groups or samples. The current version number is 3.85.
DESCRIBE.EXE - For use in descriptive epidemiology including the appraisal of separate samples in comparative studies. The current version number is 3.18..
ETCETERA.EXE - Miscellaneous (randomization, random sampling, adjustment of multiple-test p-values, appraisal of synergism, assessment of a scale, correlation-coefficient tools, large contingency tables, three-way tables, median polish and mean polish, appraisal of effect of unmeasured confounders). The current version number is 3.26.
LOGISTIC.EXE - Multiple logistic regression. The current version number is 1.54.
PAIRSetc.EXE - For appraisal of differences and agreement between matched samples or observations. The current version number is 3.59.
POISSON.EXE - Multiple Poisson regression. The current version number is 1.27.
WHATIS.EXE - An expression evaluator (with storage of constants, interim results, and formulae) and calculator for p values (and their inverse), confidence intervals, and time spans. The current version number is 4.61.
Manuals are supplied in PDF format, which can be read with (e.g.) Foxit Reader or the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
For a paper describing the programs, see Abramson, J.H. WINPEPI updated: computer programs for epidemiologists, and their teaching potential. Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations 2011, 8:1 (can be accessed via the WinPepi portal, and is available here. The programs and their uses are also described in Encyclopedia of Research Design (ed. N.J. Salkind), vol. 3, Sage Publications, 2010, 1633-1636. A description was also published in the Epidemiology Monitor 2007, 28(Oct): 1-7, with an update in the March 2009 issue. There is a brief and usually out-of-date description in Wikipedia.