Personalized Medicine and Convergence: Prospects for Statisticians

• Activity Number: 460
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Health Policy Statistics
• Author(s): Turkan Kumbaraci Gardenier*+ and Sholom Wacholder*+ and Knut Wittkowski*+ and Alan Shuldiner*+
• Companies: Pragmatica Corp. and National Cancer Institute and The Rockefeller University and University of Maryland
• Keywords: genomics; microarrays; personalized medicine; convergence

Abstract

Advances in genomics research has spurred many avenues for contribution by statisticians. Methodology for dealing with microarrays, false positives and false negatives in case control studies are some issues where statisticians interact with researchers in design and/or analysis and interpretation. "Convergence" as a related concept has also evolved, directing not only collaboration among disciplines but also has led to synergistic outcomes. Biologists, physical scientists and engineers are now working together in special institutes or university centers toward developing new products which can identify prospective onset of disease and biological interactions. Nanotechnology is often at the core of such areas of pursuit. This panel brings together contributors to the area of personalized medicine with a view to discussing and identifying newly emerging roles for statisticians-- for example, clinical trials for emerging products and related quality control issues, and on-site training in statistical data. analysis and data collection.