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  • Généralités

    qualifiante Summer Class in Biostatistics and Epidemiology for Comparative Studies

    26th - 28th of June, 2017

  • Context

    Basic skills in Biostatistics and Epidemiology for comparative studies (such as randomized controlled trials, case-control or cohort studies seeking risk factors) must have been acquired in order to (1) critically read any scientific paper dealing with veterinary clinical research, (2) anticipate bias before setting up a comparative clinical study, and (3) appropriately interpret statistical results. Sometimes, and unfortunately, statistics that are needed to answer a medical question are performed by statisticians who do not fully understand the context of the medical question, and/or the clinicians sometimes do not fully interpret the results provided by the statisticians.

    • Target audience

      Residents, PhD students, academic staff, and veterinary surgeons from private companies or clinics involved in clinical veterinary research.
      Maximum of 36 applicants.

      • Objectives

        • Overall objective

          The overall objective is to enable future specialists in veterinary medicine or any veterinarian involved in clinical research to critically interpret statistical results from a comparative clinical study and to perform on their own their statistical analyses while avoiding over-interpretation (for instance, causal inference) of the results. In other words, the objective of this Summer Class is to enable the applicants to understand and justify the statistical methodology they will use, in order to obtain clinically relevant results.

        • Learning skills

          -    To understand the main statistical strategies used in papers dealing with veterinary clinical research by using comparative studies;
          -    To identify the data that need to be collected before setting up a clinical study;
          -    To identify the type of bias that would emerge from a non-appropriate collection of data or a non-appropriate statistical analysis, ant to anticipate the impact on the statistical results;
          -    To calculate the number of recruited subjects in a superiority randomized controlled trial;
          -    To perform univariate and multivariate analyses with XLSTAT® software in order to make causal inference, and to adequately interpret the results.

      • Keywords

        Epidemiology, Biostatistics, clinical comparative studies, understanding, interpretation, causal inference, bias, critical appraisal, XLSTAT®.

        • Lecturer

          Loïc Desquilbet, PhD in Public Health and Epidemiology, assistant professor in Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Ecole nationale vétérinaire d’Alfort.
          https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=dFXA1qAAAAAJ&hl=fr
          https://fr.linkedin.com/in/loic-desquilbet-5548b748

          • Prerequisites

            Having read scientific papers presenting results with p-values for comparisons of (at least) two groups of animals.

            • Teaching program

              • Day 1 – Basics in Biostatistics

                08h30-09h00 :    Introduction – presentation of the teachings
                09h00-10h00 :    Games introducing the theory of statistical testing
                10h00-10h15 :    Coffee break
                10h15-12h15 :    Theory of statistical testing (rejection/acceptance of the null hypothesis, type-I and type-II errors, p-values)
                12h15-13h30 :    Lunch break
                13h30-15h30 :    Statistical testing in practice on real data with XLSTAT®
                15h30-15h45 :    Coffee break
                15h45-17h15 :    Interpretation of statistical tests on real data (statistical inference, correct use of type-I and type-II errors when concluding)

              • Day 2 – Basics in Epidemiology for comparative studies

                09h00-10h30 :    Methodology for causal inference, part I (type of studies, measures of associations, causal inference, misclassification bias)
                10h30-10h45 :    Coffee break
                10h45-12h15 :    Methodology for causal inference, part II (confounding bias, statistical strategies to reduce confounding bias)
                12h15-13h30 :    Lunch break
                13h30-15h00 :    Misclassification bias and impact on statistical inference on real data with XLSTAT®
                15h00-15h15 :    Coffee break
                15h15-16h15 :    Introduction to multivariate models
                16h15-17h45 :    Adjustment for confounders with logistic regression on real data with XLSTAT®

              • Day 3 – Randomized controlled trials (RCT)

                09h00-11h00 :    Statistical power & sample size calculation for superiority RCT
                11h00-11h15 :    Coffee break
                11h15-12h15 :    RCT: from theory to practice (sample size calculation of an RCT, a priori statistical power calculation, data that need to be collected prior to the implementation of the RCT)
                12h15-13h30 :    Lunch break
                13h30-14h30 :    Implementation of the RCT involving the participants (randomization process, 1-minute intervention, data collection through an online questionnaire)
                14h30-14h45 :    Coffee break
                14h45-16h45 :    Statistical analyses of the data from the RCT and causal inference with bias discussion
                16h45-17h45 :    Take-home messages

            • Practical informations

              • Teaching method

                Lectures: 45%    Practical work: 55%

                A laptop (either Mac or PC) is strongly recommended during the 3 days of the Summer Class

              • Fees

                600€ if registration before May 1st, 2017; 800€ if registration after May 1st, 2017

                If resident/intern/student: 300€/350€ before/after May 1st, 2017

                A supporting document will be requested at the time of the training session in case of payment of the fees for residents/interns/PhD/students

                The Fees include a free XLSTAT® licence for 3 months, then a 50%-reduction on the licence price

              • Registration

                An email must be sent to Loic Desquilbet (loic.desquilbet@vet-alfort.fr) to notify your wish to register

              • Place and accomodation

                Ecole nationale vétérinaire d’Alfort - 7, Avenue du Général De Gaulle - 94700 Maisons-Alfort - France (Paris metro line #8, “Ecole vétérinaire de Maisons-Alfort” stop)

                A list of accomodations located in a walking distance from the EnvA can be downloaded here:

            • Section for administrative staff