The Southern California American Statistical Association presents

the 23nd Annual Workshop in Applied Statistics


Detailed information, including the registration form, is available here


Analysis of Right Censored Time to Event Data

Scott Emerson, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Biostatistics, University of Washington


Saturday, May 1, 2004
8:45-3:30pm

at
California State University, Long Beach
College of Business Administration Building, Room 140


Abstract


The analysis of data measuring time to event is often complicated by incomplete observations: Some subjects have not yet had an event at the time of data analysis. A wide variety of statistical methods have been developed for use in this setting of “right censored data”, including parametric and semiparametric regression models, as well as a broad array of nonparametric methods. In this short course, I review the scientific and statistical issues involved in the analysis of right censored data and provide an overview of the spectrum of analytic methods available. I then focus on the nonparametric analysis of censored time to event data in the presence of nonproportional hazards. In particular, I consider a class of weighted logrank statistics, and contrast the use of those statistics with the behavior of statistics based on the weighted difference of survival curves. I then explore the effect that a varying censoring distribution has on the statistical operating characteristics of these methods when applied in sequential sampling.

Click here for detailed abstract (pdf).



Professor Emerson

Scott Emerson, Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Washington, is an active researcher in the design, monitoring and analysis of group sequential trials. A major focus of his research has been in the use of estimation methods to examine the robustness of inference in the setting of poorly specified stopping rules. Currently, much of his research focuses on the use of nonparametric methods which are robust to model misspecification when used with a sequential sampling plan, especially in the setting of longitudinal studies. He serves on a number of government and industry sponsored advisory boards related to the design and monitoring of clinical trials. Computer programs that he developed for his research into group sequential methodology now form the backbone of S+SeqTrial, an S-Plus module for group sequential trial design.

Dr. Emerson is an accomplished teacher, having taught formal courses in statistical applications, methods, and theory at the Universities of Washington, Arizona, Florida, and Virginia. Students in those courses cover the range of majors and nonmajors at both the graduate and undergraduate level. In 1999, Dr. Emerson received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington. He has taught a number of 1 and 2 day public short courses on group sequential trial design in the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Australia, as well as a 2 day private course for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).


More information, including registration forms, schedule, map and directions.