Article
Enabling new findings – modes of interdisciplinary collaboration at the intersection of biostatistics and epidemiology
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Authors
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Antonia Zapf
- Institute of Medical Biometry, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
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Ulrike Haug
- Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Bremen, Germany
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Malte Braitmaier
- Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Bremen, Germany
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Marcus Dörr
- Klinik und Poliklinik für Innere Medizin B, Universitätsmedizin Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
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Carsten Oliver Schmidt
- Universität Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
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Berit Lange
- Department for Epidemiology, HZI - Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung GmbH, Braunschweig, Germany
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André Scherag
- Institut für Medizinische Statistik, Informatik und Datenwissenschaften, Universitätsklinikum Jena, Jena, Germany
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André Karch
- Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany
| Published: | September 6, 2024 |
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Outline
Text
Chairs: Berit Lange and André Scherag
Speakers: Antonia Zapf, Ulrike Haug, Malte Braitmaier, Marcus Dörr, Carsten Oliver Schmidt, André Karch
Content: While theoretical and methodological biostatisticians and epidemiologists work closely together in joint departments in many countries worldwide, formal collaboration on a methodological level is far less common in Germany. Reasons for that might be the relatively late development of theoretical epidemiology in Germany or the rather strict differentiation between clinical trials (mainly accompanied by biostatisticians) and observational studies (mainly accompanied by epidemiologists).
We argue that there is an urgent need for a much closer collaboration of biostatisticians and epidemiologists both in the development of new methodology, and in the application of complementary methodological expertise for clinical and public health research questions. We present three practical examples where interdisciplinary teams were able to go beyond what individual disciplines could have achieved. These examples cover the fields of diagnostic studies, causal inference and clinical prediction models.
In the first presentation “Diagnostic test development and evaluation for emerging infectious diseases” Antonia Zapf and André Karch discuss their joint work on the development of diagnostic study designs suitable for application in the case of epidemics with emerging pathogens where test development and validation is extremely time-sensitive.
In the second presentation “Target trial emulation for the evaluation of cancer screening programs” Ulrike Haug and Malte Braitmaier introduce their work on adapting the target trail emulation concept to the evaluation of effects of cancer screening programs on cancer-specific mortality based on claims data.
In the third presentation, “Cardiovascular diseases from a global perspective” Marcus Dörr and Carsten Oliver Schmidt provide insights into biostatistical and information management challenges of conducting networked transnational research on cardiovascular diseases and add a clinician’s perspective to the question of how the disciplines might collaborate.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
The authors declare that an ethics committee vote is not required.
