European Statistical Forum

The application of big data analytics like machine learning and artificial intelligence holds the potential to transform drug development by means of improved patient outcomes, identification of new treatments and reduction of costs and development time.
This transformation is facilitated not only by the development of the analytical techniques, but also by the ever-expanding availability of data from legacy information, clinical trials, and medical records from participants in data collection initiatives as well as the even broader “real world”.
The enrichment of biological, clinical and patient preference large-scale data could enable computational inference relevant to real-world pharmaceutical research, particularly in the areas of:

• Identification of predictive factors for patient response
• More efficient clinical trial management and recruitment
• Supplementing clinical trial data with real world data
• Drug candidate selection and pipeline development
• Orphan drugs, rare diseases and drug repurposing

The 11th edition of the European Statistical Forum is therefore dedicated to understanding if and how these new techniques may be changing the drug development paradigm, to highlighting opportunities and pitfalls, and to exploring how the role of the biostatistician may evolve and interact with these new approaches.
In scope are presentations for example on:

• Regulatory views on the new analytical techniques incorporating data science elements
• Advanced methods for response prediction or subgroup identification
• Novel approaches to trial design incorporating flexible elements for patient stratification
• Innovative ways to incorporate real world data into the clinical study design or analysis
• Early identification of Adverse Drug Reactions
• Real case studies of collaboration between biostatisticians and data scientists
• Opportunities and risks with novel data science methodologies.

The European Statistical Forum conference will be preceded by a seminar / training on data science and machine learning methodology.

Scientific board
Jens-Otto Andreas - Head Statistical Sciences & Innovation - Bone & New Diseases at UCB Biosciences GmbH
Lisa Comarella - Director Biostatistics at CROS NT
Giacomo Mordenti - Head of Biostatistics & Data Management Europe at Daiichi Sankyo Europe GmbH
Marc Vandemeulebroecke - Global Group Head for Dermatology at Novartis Biostatistics

Who should attend?
The conference is addressed to statisticians, pharmacometricians, physicians, regulators, academia and other experts interested in the field belonging to: Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology companies, CROs, Universities/Hospitals, Academic Research.