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SDTM supplemental-qualifier merging got sturdier, then the package went quiet for two years.
Comparison · Analytics
FedData vs teal.modules.clinical
A side-by-side editorial comparison of FedData and teal.modules.clinical — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
FedData vs teal.modules.clinical: at a glance
What is FedData?
FedData has spent two major versions migrating US federal geodata off R's retiring spatial stack.
FedData downloads and standardises US federal geospatial datasets — NLCD, NHD, NED, SSURGO, Daymet, GHCN, PAD-US, NASS — into consistent R objects. Two breaking majors define the current package: 3.0.0 moved returns to sf and raster and pulled data from cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs, and 4.0.0 finished the job by dropping sp and raster entirely for terra and sf. Recent releases are dataset refreshes, most recently PAD-US 4.0.
What is teal.modules.clinical?
Roche's clinical teal modules have settled into slow, decorator-driven maintenance.
The module library took its architectural break in 0.9.0, when every module moved to teal_data objects and dropped data_extract_spec inputs. Work since then is narrower: formatting arguments, decorator plumbing, and per-module bug fixes. The 0.13.0 candidates cut in July 2026 are a two-tag same-day release where the first tag carries all the notes.
FedData vs teal.modules.clinical: editorial side-by-side
FedData
0.0ANALYTICS
FedData has spent two major versions migrating US federal geodata off R's retiring spatial stack.
◆ Current state
FedData downloads and standardises US federal geospatial datasets — NLCD, NHD, NED, SSURGO, Daymet, GHCN, PAD-US, NASS — into consistent R objects. Two breaking majors define the current package: 3.0.0 moved returns to sf and raster and pulled data from cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs, and 4.0.0 finished the job by dropping sp and raster entirely for terra and sf. Recent releases are dataset refreshes, most recently PAD-US 4.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The package tracks two moving targets at once: the R spatial stack, which it has now fully migrated onto terra and sf, and the federal agencies whose URLs, file naming and hosting keep shifting. With the dependency migration finished, releases have shrunk to single-dataset updates such as annual NLCD and PAD-US 4.0, which suggests the structural work is done and the ongoing cost is data-source maintenance.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued small releases pinned to new vintages of the underlying federal datasets, plus fixes when an agency moves or reformats a source; no further dependency-level upheaval is visible in these entries.
teal.modules.clinical
0.0ANALYTICS
Roche's clinical teal modules have settled into slow, decorator-driven maintenance.
◆ Current state
The module library took its architectural break in 0.9.0, when every module moved to teal_data objects and dropped data_extract_spec inputs. Work since then is narrower: formatting arguments, decorator plumbing, and per-module bug fixes. The 0.13.0 candidates cut in July 2026 are a two-tag same-day release where the first tag carries all the notes.
◆ Where it's heading
Development has shifted from reshaping the module API to making outputs configurable — numeric formatting in tm_t_summary, several decorators applied to one output object, categorical statistics in summary_by. Changes arrive from a wide bench of Roche engineers with occasional outside contributors, and releases go through candidates rather than straight to final.
◆ Prediction
A 0.13.0 final should follow the candidates with little beyond a dependency bump; the decorator work ported from teal.modules.general is the most likely source of the next batch of changes.
Alternatives to FedData and teal.modules.clinical
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either FedData or teal.modules.clinical.
marquee
marquee is filling in the typographic details — outlines, border types, real font metrics for underlines.
logrx
A clinical-script logger that stopped shipping after its 0.2 line, changelogs made of merged PRs.
lobstr
R's object inspector is losing its view of the internals as CRAN closes off the private C API.
GSODR
A weather-station data client that broke one return type to hand back distances instead of bare IDs.
giscoR
giscoR's 1.0 moved its dataset index into the cache, so new Eurostat releases arrive without a package update.
See all FedData alternatives → · See all teal.modules.clinical alternatives →
Recent activity from FedData and teal.modules.clinical
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoteal.modules.clinicalNumeric formatting control and multi-decorator outputs
- 1mo agoteal.modules.clinicalteal.transform dependency bump
- 1y agoFedDataget_padus() updated to PAD-US 4.0
- 1y agoFedDataAnnual NLCD access added; get_nass() retired
- 2y agoteal.modules.clinicalForest and Kaplan-Meier plots move to ggplot objects
- 2y agoteal.modules.clinicalEvery clinical module migrates to teal_data objects ⚡
- 2y agoFedDatasp and raster dropped; everything returns terra or sf ⚡
- 3y agoFedDataGHCN moves to https; NHD handles empty and odd geometries
- 3y agoFedDataAll raster writing moves to terra
- 3y agoFedDataVersion 3 rebuilds on sf and cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between FedData and teal.modules.clinical?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. FedData and teal.modules.clinical are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is FedData better than teal.modules.clinical?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. FedData and teal.modules.clinical are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to FedData?
Top FedData alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "FedData alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/feddata for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to teal.modules.clinical?
Top teal.modules.clinical alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "teal.modules.clinical alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/teal-modules-clinical for the full list with editorial commentary on each.