Thomas E. Love and A. James O’Malley

Sharon-Lise Normand receives one of two Long-Term Excellence Awards from Alan Zaslavsky, who was the previous awardee.

More than 210 statisticians, methodologists, and health policy experts gathered from October 5–7, 2011, at The Ritz Carlton in Cleveland, Ohio, for the ninth International Conference on Health Policy Statistics (ICHPS).

The meeting’s theme, “Advancing Methods to Improve Health Care,” reflected the growing importance of research methods in facilitating informed discussions regarding health reform and other efforts to improve health care in the United States. The newly minted Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s calls for research reflect the effect of many of the methods showcased.

Major presentations included a range of topics, including longitudinal data; spatial data; causal inference and treatment heterogeneity; quasi-experimental studies and novel use of randomization; and Bayesian analysis, including prior specification, hierarchical modeling, and random effects.

Plenary addresses were delivered by Steven Nissen, department chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, on the drug safety wars and Arlene Ash, chief of the division of biostatistics and health services research in the department of quantitative health sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, on making statistics relevant.

From left: James O’Malley, Steve Nissen, and Tom Love pose for a quick photo.

Nissen’s keynote described the discovery of safety concerns involving the pharmaceutical blockbusters Vioxx, Muraglitazar, and Avandia; the challenge of getting these concerns acknowledged; and subsequent attempted cover-ups. His talk empowered the audience to use rigorous statistical practice to maintain a high standard of integrity.

Ash provided a description of her work in health policy statistics, offering sage advice and perceptive glimpses of the future. She encouraged the pursuit of problems of real interest and emphasized the power of independent thought and action.

The conference also featured the presentation of the Health Policy Statistics Section’s biennial awards. Honored with the Long-Term Excellence Award were Sharon-Lise Normand of Harvard University and Paula Diehr of the University of Washington, emeritus, while the Mid-Career Award was presented to James O’Malley of Harvard University.

Attendees were afforded opportunities to mingle in a relaxed environment while enjoying Cleveland’s hospitality and food on Thursday evening at the House of Blues in the East Fourth Street district.

The 11 conference workshops (attracting nearly 500 attendees) included sequences on causal inference and patient- reported outcomes and workshops on quantile regression, multiple comparisons, network meta-analysis, and evaluating the accuracy of medical tests and biomarkers. Jeffrey Rhoades of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality concluded the conference with an entertaining and informative introduction to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.

The 10th ICHPS—planned for October of 2013 in Seattle, Washington—will be co-chaired by Andrew Zhou of the University of Washington and Don Hedeker of the University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information, contact Zhou at azhou@u.washington.edu or Hedeker at hedeker@uic.edu.