This week, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Frank Harrell for the Seventh Annual Janice Pogue Lecture in Biostatistics. He delivered a talk titled “Modernizing Clinical Trial Design and Analysis to Improve Efficiency and Flexibility.”

Dr. Harrell discussed ways to improve efficiency in clinical trials- “if we’re willing to accept change” he noted. He addressed various questions and topics, including sample size, principles for selecting outcome measures, and covariate adjustment (view slides). 

“Think about how clinical trials could be done drastically differently than they are now if we’re willing to do things in new ways,” said Dr. Harrell. “When you see another way to do some things you don’t have to say that everything you have done is wrong or bad. All you need to say is onward and upward. There are new opportunities out there and we don’t have anything to apologize for in the last 100 years of how we practiced statistics. But it is time for change.”  

Dr. Harrell is a Professor of Biostatistics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He has taught biostatistics and research methodology to hundreds of physicians since 1980 and has been a mentor or co-mentor to several physician investigators. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and winner of its 2014 WJ Dixon Award for Excellence in Statistical Consulting. He was the 2008 Mitchell Lecturer for the Department of Statistics, Glasgow University, and the 2012 Presidential Invited Lecturer for WNAR, International Biometric Society, among other honors.      

L to R: Harrell and Bangdiwala

Shrikant Bangdiwala, PHRI Senior Scientist and Director of Statistics presented Dr. Harrell with the “Distinguished Featured Speaker Award for the 6th Annual Janice Pogue Lecture” on behalf of PHRI. 

“I’m honored to be here and do this in honor of Janice Pogue, who was a very esteemed statistician, much loved, very accomplished, quiet-spoken, but would stand up for what she believed in terms of research methodology and statistics” added Dr. Harrell. 

On Pogue’s legacy, PHRI Interim Executive Director Hertzel Gerstein said “Many of us had the pleasure and privilege of knowing Janice. She was an incredibly intelligent person who built the statistics department at PHRI. Janice was responsible for many of our research successes, including numerous methodological and biostatistical innovations she led and helped disseminate widely.”

Janice Pogue was an exceptional statistician who created the statistical group at PHRI where she worked for 22 years. The annual Janice Pogue Lecture was launched in recognition of her contributions to the field and to establish a lasting memorial in her name. 

Additionally, Dr. Harrell gave a talk on “Bayesian Thinking with a Variety of Examples of How Different It Is from Traditional Statistics” at McMaster University’s Health Evidence and Impact (HEI) department on December 6 (view slides). 

 

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