5th Annual Trials Methodology Symposium 2019

The HRB-TMRN are delighted to welcome some of the world’s leading experts in trial methodology to Malahide, Dublin this December 6^th 2019, for our 5th Trial Methodology Symposium. The theme for this year’s event is

“Clinical Trial Design – partnering pragmatism with complexity to achieve excellence”.

Session 1

PEOPLE: Developing expertise, supporting careers

October 4 | 14:00 – 16:15

Session 2

PURPOSE: “When uncertain, the best treatment option is an RCT”

October 5 | 09:00 – 10:30

Session 3

PROJECT: Evolution of trial design

October 5 | 14:00 – 16:00

Session 4

PLACE: Trials in a post pandemic era: lessons learned for the future of trials

October 6 | 10:00 – 12:00

Session 5

Special Session – MRC/NIHR-TMRP Working Groups

October 6 | 14:00 – 15:30 & 15:30 – 17:00

Guest Speakers

Professor Jeremy Grimshaw

Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and University of Ottawa, Canada

Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw received a MBChB (MD equivalent) from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He trained as a family physician prior to undertaking a PhD in health services research at the University of Aberdeen. He moved to Canada in 2002. His research focuses on the evaluation of interventions to disseminate and implement evidence-based practice. Dr. Grimshaw is a Senior Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, a Full Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Knowledge Transfer and Uptake. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal College of Edinburgh. He has been awarded the CIHR Knowledge Translation award twice and is the 2018 CIHR Barer-Flood career achievement award winner for Health Services and Policy Research. Read more >

Professor Sandra Eldridge

Barts & The London Queen Mary's School of Medicine, UK

Sandra is Professor of Biostatistics and Director of the UKCRC Registered Pragmatic Clinical Trials Unit at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. She is also Associate Dean for Strategic Developments within the School and the lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Sandra is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners, an NIHR Senior Investigator, fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the Society for Academic Primary Care. She currently sits on the NIHR Clinical Trials Unit Standing Advisory Committee. Between 2007 and 2017, she was joint lead of the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, and between 2008 and 2018, she jointly led the east London arm of the NIHR Research Design Service. She sat on the Royal Statistical Society’s Council between 2015 and 2018 and led the setting up of its Primary Health Care Study Group, which ran between 2002 and 2017. She was a member of the Society for Academic Primary Care Executive between 2011 and 2017. She has sat on various NIHR funding panels including Programme Grants for Applied Research and HTA. Read more >

Professor Matthias Briel

University Hospital Basel Switzerland, and McMaster University, Canada

Matthias Briel is Deputy Director of the Basel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CEB), Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, and Assistant Professor (pt) at the Department of Health Research Methodology, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. He completed a speciality degree in Preventive Medicine and Public Health and received the Venia Legendi from the University of Basel in 2011. His research focuses on the design and conduct of clinical trials & meta-analyses and quality of clinical research. Dr. Briel teaches clinical research methodology and evidence-based medicine to under- and postgraduate audiences. Read More >

Dr Erika Daly

ICON Clinical Research, Ireland

Dr Erika Daly is Director Biostatistics at ICON plc, a top-5 global CRO (contract research organisation) in the pharmaceutical industry, based at ICON’s global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. She joined ICON Clinical Research as a statistician in 2004 and has supported clinical trials in many therapeutic areas including oncology, CNS, GI disorders, and cardiovascular diseases. Initially a project statistician, she has been in management roles of increasing responsibility since 2008. As a statistical consultant, she has represented pharma companies in their discussions with the FDA and has served as the unblinded statistician for numerous data monitoring committees (DMCs). Dr Daly obtained her B.A. (Statistics and Economics), M.Sc. (Statistics) and Ph.D. (Biostatistics) from University College Dublin.

She is a former member of both the PSI (Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry) Scientific Committee and the PSI Regulatory Affairs Committee. Research interests include analysis methods for matched binary and time-to-event data, multivariate modelling and trial design. Read More >

Professor Dominic Trepél

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Dominic Trepél (PhD) is Assistant Professor of Health Economics in the School of Medicine (Trinity College Dublin) and is jointly appointed to the Global Brain Health Institute (TCD | UCSF).Trepél specialises in health economics and much of his current research is dedicated to studying dementia, brain health and ageing in real-world settings. He has extensive experience in developing complex economic evaluations alongside randomised control trials and has lead economics for numerous Health Technology Assessments (HTAs). His work has informed health service design and policy, and has been published in leading journals (e.g. JAMA). Prior to joining Trinity, Trepél was a Senior Research Fellowships with leading centres in health economics including University of York and the Academic Unit for Health Economics (Leeds). Read More >