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Previous summer school programs

2022

Drugs, Diseases, Designs: Topics and methods in real-world pharmacoepidemiology

Benefits and risks of treatments are only interpretable in the context of treated patients with a given disease. In this year’s series of master classes, we start by showcasing pharmacoepidemiology challenges and methods in specific diseases and finish by the popular meta-analysis course.

Format: Brief overview lectures followed by hands-on exercises and group work rooted in real studies.
Prerequisites: basic training in epidemiology and biostatistics is assumed.
Equipment: Laptop. All participants will get a short-course STATA license for the duration of the course, which needs to be installed on laptop.

DAY 1

Get real: crash course in pharmacoepi-methods (half day)
Epidemiologic study design, prescription data, and sources of bias in pharmacoepidemiology. Confounding by indication, healthy user effects.

Sugar, statins and other stories (half day)
Brief overview of diabetes/obesity/cardiovascular disease epidemiology and treatment. Studying comparative effectiveness and drug safety.

Instructor:
Reimar W. Thomsen, MD, PhD, Aarhus University


DAY 2

Cancer epidemiology in the era of precision medicine (half day)
Treatment patterns and recurrence, immortal time bias, targeted therapies.

Instructors:
Deirdre Cronin-Fenton, PhD,  Aarhus University
Mette Nørgaard, MD, PhD, Aarhus University

Drugs and biomarkers in renal diseases (half day)
Longitudinal data, defining outcomes using laboratory values, longitudinal data with repeated measurements.

Instructor:
Christian Fynbo Christiansen, MD, PhD, Aarhus University


DAY 3

Perinatal pharmacoepidemiology (half day)
Design, analysis, and biaas as applied to studies of drug treatment in pregnancy.

DUS and Don’ts (half day)
Drug utilization and risk minimization studies. Interrupted time series regression. Validation studies of routinely collected data.

Instructors:
Irene Petersen, PhD, University College London and Aarhus University
Vera Ehrenstein, MPH, DSc, Aarhus University


DAY 4

Meta-analysis (part 1)
The course will give a comprehensive overview of topics in meta-analysis. Most standard topics in meta-analysis will be covered, such as risk of bias analysis, fixed versus random effect models, heterogeneity, meta-regression and differences between meta-analysis of randomized trials and meta-analysis observational studies. Core elements will also be covered in hands-on practical sessions. These sessions will be provided in R and STATA. After the course, the students should be able to perform a standard meta-analysis by themselves.

Instructors:
Olaf M. Dekkers, MD, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center
Saskia le Cessie, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center


DAY 5

Meta-analysis (part 2)

The course will give a comprehensive overview of topics in meta-analysis. Most standard topics in meta-analysis will be covered, such as risk of bias analysis, fixed versus random effect models, heterogeneity, meta-regression and differences between meta-analysis of randomized trials and meta-analysis observational studies. Core elements will also be covered in hands-on practical sessions. These sessions will be provided in R and STATA. After the course, the students should be able to perform a standard meta-analysis by themselves.

Instructors:
Olaf M. Dekkers, MD, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center
Saskia le Cessie, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center

2021 (Cancelled due to COVID-19)

The 2021 Pharmacoepidemiology Summer School was cancelled due to COVID-19. See the 2020 program below.

2020 (Cancelled due to COVID-19)

DAY 1

Get real: crash course in pharmacoepi-methods (half day)
Epidemiologic study design, prescription data and sources of bias in pharmacoepidemiology. Confounding by indication, healthy user effects.

 
Sugar, statins and other stories (half day)

Brief overview of diabetes/obesity/cardiovascular disease epidemiology and treatment. Studying comparative effectiveness and drug safety.


Instructor:
Reimar W. Thomsen, MD, PhD, Aarhus University


DAY 2

Cancer epidemiology in the era of precision medicine (half day)
Treatment patterns and recurrence, immortal time bias, targeted therapies.


Instructors:
Deirdre Cronin-Fenton, PhD,  Aarhus University
Mette Nørgaard, MD, PhD, Aarhus University

 

Drugs and biomarkers in renal diseases (half day)
Longitudinal data, defining outcomes using laboratory values, longitudinal data with repeated measurements.


Instructor:
Christian Fynbo Christiansen, MD, PhD, Aarhus University


DAY 3

Bone disease and device safety (half day)
Measuring adherence and persistence of long-acting agents. Health Technology Assessment. Safety of devices.

Instructor:
Alma B. Pedersen, MD, PhD, DMSc, Aarhus University

DUS and Don’ts (half day)
Drug utilization and risk minimization studies. Interrupted time series regression. Validation studies of routinely collected data.

Instructors:
Irene Petersen, PhD, University College London and Aarhus University
Vera Ehrenstein, MPH, DSc, Aarhus University


DAY 4

Meta-analysis (part 1)
The course will give a broad overview of topics in meta-analysis. Most standard topics in meta-analysis will be covered, such as risk of bias analysis, fixed versus random effect models, heterogeneity, differences between meta-analysis of randomized trials and meta-analysis observational studies. Core elements will also be covered in hands-on practical sessions (risk of bias analysis, statistical analysis). After the course, the students should be able to perform a standard meta-analysis by themselves. The course will briefly cover some more advanced topics (network meta-analysis, combining different metrics).

Instructor:
Olaf M. Dekkers, MD, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center


DAY 5

Meta-analysis (part 2)

Instructor:
Olaf M. Dekkers, MD, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center

2019

Advanced topics in pharmacoepidemiology (2 days)

Professor M. Alan Brookhart

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

Self-controlled study designs (1 day)

Professor Ian Douglas

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

 

Perinatal and reproductive pharmacoepidemiology (1 day)

Professor Irene Petersen

University College London and Aarhus University

Professor Vera Ehrenstein

Aarhus University


Reporting our research using routinely-collected health data better- introducing STROBE, RECORD and RECORD-PE (half day)

Professor Sinead Langan

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

2018

Pharmacoepidemiology and Comparative Effectiveness Research (2 days)

Professor Til Stürmer & Assistant Professor Jennifer Lund

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

Meta-Analysis (2 days)

Professor Olaf M. Dekkers

Leiden University Medical Center and Aarhus University

 

Group Work: Designing a Pharmacoepidemiologic Study (half day)

Professor Irene Petersen

University College London and Aarhus University

Professor Vera Ehrenstein

Aarhus University

2017

Advanced Topics in Pharmacoepidemiology (2 days)         

Professor Alan Brookhart, BA, MAMS, MA, PhD

University of North Carolina

Dr. Leah Sirkus McGrath, BS, MHS, PhD

NoviSci, LLC

 

Missing Data Issues (1 day)

Professor Irene Petersen, MSc, PGCert, P. Grad Dip, PhD

University College London and Aarhus University

 

Self-controlled Designs (1 day)                       

Associate Professor Ian Douglas, BSc, MSc, PhD

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

 

Perinatal and Reproductive Pharmacoepidemiology (half day)

Professor Irene Petersen, MSc, PGCert, P. Grad Dip, PhD

University College London and Aarhus University

Professor Vera Ehrenstein, MPH, DSc

Aarhus University

2016

Introduction to Pharmacoepidemiology (half day)

Professor John Acquavella

Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

 

Questions to Consider Regarding the Application of the Results of a RCT of the Efficacy of Therapy to the Management of Patients (half day)

Professor Noel Weiss

University of Washington, Seattle, USA

 

Pharmacoepidemiology and Comparative Effectiveness Research (2 days)

Professor Til Stürmer & Assistant Professor Jennifer Lund

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

 

Meta-Analysis (2 days)

Professor Olaf M. Dekkers

Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands and Adjunct Professor at Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark


2015

Introduction to Pharmaceutical Risk Management (half day)

Visiting Professor John Acquavella

Aarhus University, Denmark

 

Pruning the Research Question (half day)

Professor Jan P. Vandenbroucke

Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands and Aarhus University, Denmark

 

Pharmacoepidemiology and Comparative Effectiveness Research (2 days)

Professor Til Stürmer & Assistant Professor Jennifer Lund

University of North Carolina, USA

Visiting Professor and Visiting Scientist, respectively, at Aarhus University, Denmark

 

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2 days)

Associate Professor Olaf M. Dekkers

Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands and Honorary Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark

2014

Issues in study design (2 days)

Randomized clinical trials      
Associate professor Vera Ehrenstein, MPH, DMS

Power and sample size calculation                 
Associate professor Anders H. Riis, MSc

Cohort studies
Clinical associate professor Christian Fynbo Christiansen, MD, PhD

Issues in randomization and hypothesis testing
Consultant Søren Paaske Johnsen, MD, PhD

Case-control studies
Associate professor Deirdre Cronin-Fenton, BSc, PhD
Clinical associate professor Mette Nørgaard, MD, PhD

Cross-sectional studies
PhD student Morten Schmidt, MD

Drug safety (1 day)                   
Professor Tom MacDonald, BSc, MD, FRCPE, FRCPSG, FESC, FISPE, FBPharmacolS

Systematic review and meta-analysis (2 days)                      
Associate professor Olaf M. Dekkers, MD, MSc, MA, PhD