2016 Spring ASA Chapter Meeting

The American Statistical Association, the Kansas Western Missouri Chapter of the ASA, the University of Kansas Medical Center Department of Biostatistics, and Kansas State University Department of Statistics are co-sponsoring a full day of activities for statistics students and professionals.

STAT-KC: A Career Day in Statistics

Please join us for an exciting new event--the first annual STAT.KC: A Career Day in Statistics. The American Statistical Association, the Kansas Western Missouri Chapter of the ASA, the University of Kansas Medical Center Department of Biostatistics, and Kansas State University Department of Statistics are co-sponsoring this half-day event to engage, expose, and encourage students in the Midwest to pursue educational and career opportunities in statistics. STAT.KC aims to bring together students, educators, and working professionals in order to

1. give students an idea of potential educational and career paths in the statistical sciences,
2. allow participants to discuss the day-to-day roles and responsibilities required of statisticians employed in a variety of disciplines, and
3. get feedback from working professionals regarding the necessary educational credentials and experience required of careers in our field.

Program:

10 AM - High School Poster Competition and Panel Discussion: Careers in Statistics
11 AM - "The World Needs Statisticians: What Path Will You Take" by Thomas Short, PhD
12 PM - Networking lunch (provided for volunteers and all student registrants)

There are several ways you can get involved: Register and participate. Anyone can! Compete in the poster competition. This is open to high school students and their mentors/teachers only. Volunteer to judge. Anyone can! Represent your institution--either as an academic recruiter or an industry recruiter. Anyone can! Get the word out. Please forward this information on to students, educators, or working professionals who might like to learn more about our regional statistics community and educational and career opportunities.

ASA Traveling Short Course: Pragmatic Clinical Trials

Abstract: There is increasing interest in exploring the comparative effectiveness of therapies for a wide range of conditions. Pragmatic clinical trials offer promise. Features of pragmatic trials include simplicity of interventions or treatments, limited eligibility criteria for participants, streamlined approaches to consent, contact with participants occurring within existing processes, and outcome data obtained through administrative sources such as existing electronic health records, claims data, or registries. Pragmatic trials must still include randomization as a fundamental tool to allow valid comparison of interventions. The desired features of pragmatic trials give rise to a number of design and analytic challenges. This course will review the structure of pragmatic trials, describe some of the special design issues, and offer new approaches to handle them. Examples from actual trials in biomedical research will be provided.

Biographical Sketch: Dr. Andrea B. Troxel is Professor and Associate Director of Biostatistics at University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Director of the Abramson Cancer Center's Biostatistics Core, Director of Biostatistics at the Leonard Davis Institute Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at Penn, and Senior Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. In addition to her extensive experience in the design, conduct, and analysis of all phases of clinical studies, she has published on missing data, sensitivity analyses, and the development of statistical methodology for analysis of clinical trials. Recently she has focused on issues in pragmatic clinical trials, including methods of consent, non-standard randomization, rapid-cycle innovation, and multiple comparisons. She is the author of more than 175 articles in the literature of statistical methodology, cancer, behavioral research, and other areas of medicine. Dr. Troxel is an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association; Associate Editor of Statistics in Medicine, a premier journal in biomedical statistics; and serves on Data Safety Monitoring Boards (DSMBs) for randomized trials in cancer, cardiac devices, smoking cessation, and behavioral therapies.

Fall Chapter Meeting

Program:

• 6 PM Social Mixer
• 6:30 PM Dinner
• 7:15 PM Chapter Business
• 7:30 PM Keynote Address
• 8:30 Dismissal

Registration Fee:

Early registration fees are available through Nov. 4th, 2016. After Nov. 4th, 2016 prices will increase.
Before Nov. 4: $15 for student; $25 for non-student
After Nov. 4: $20 for student; $30 for non-student
Online registration: www.123signup.com/event?id=nvrny

The event page with registration link can be found at community.amstat.org/kwmchapter or by visiting our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/events/313084539071897.

For questions, please contact Jo Wick at stats_education@kumc.edu.