Projects

Research within MEDIASRES

Clinical trials, diagnostic and prognostic studies are the primary source of evidence in clinical medicine as well as for developing new therapeutic and diagnostic modalities. Contributions over the last decades have led to state-of-the-art statistical methodology that is now considered standard for designing and analyzing such studies and for synthesis of their results by meta-analytic approaches. However, with the increasing availability of genomic and other molecular techniques, the road seems to be paved towards individualized diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, usually referred to as personalized medicine. This leads to new challenges for the design and analysis of studies, which in turn often calls for a more complex structure of endpoints. Novel statistical methodology promises to greatly facilitate development of approaches for this personalized medicine. While state-of-the-art statistical techniques have already advanced clinical trials and diagnostic/prognostic studies, increasing availability of molecular techniques holds an even greater promise. However, for leveraging such information for individualized diagnosis/prognosis and treatment, the corresponding complex structures have to be modeled adequately and results have to be aggregated by corresponding advanced meta-analytic approaches.

Individual Research Projects