Health
Theme lead: Dr Haiyan Zheng
Introduction
Clinical trials are a type of medical research which aims to answer questions about whether a new treatment is safe and efficacious. Statistics has a critical role to play in the design, conduct and analysis of clinical trials. Modern clinical trials have been made more efficient because (i) multiple research questions can be addressed in one study, and (ii) learning as we go is possible without compromising the integrity of the study. The advent of precision medicine has further revolutionised the paradigm, suggesting a patient-centric vision with therapeutic choices tailored to certain biomarkers (or the genetic, phenotypic or psychosocial characteristics of individual patients).
Theme aims
Our theme aims to cross-fertilise ideas of statistics, medicine, and health practices. We develop innovative statistical methods and disseminate knowledge to tackle cutting-edge issues encountered in all phases of clinical trials, especially those using:
- adaptive designs that allow mid-course modification of the population, intervention, control, and endpoint of the study,
- Bayesian statistics for design, analysis or prediction,
- master protocols that evaluate multiple treatments, multiple diseases, or both.
Recent updates
Dr Zheng recently organised the Cancer Research UK Research Dissemination Workshop in Bath from 29 April – 01 May 2024. More details available at https://www.zhengh-stats.co.uk/projects/ident/workshop.
Please see our news and events pages for other activities.