The Health Policy Statistics Section’s (HPSS) JSM 2012 program is set, as is the business meeting and social mixer at Rock Bottom; all are welcome.

The business meeting and social mixer will include a door raffle for books and an awards ceremony for our student paper competition winners: Ludi Fan (University of Michigan), Hwanhee Hong (University of Minnesota), So Young Kim (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Gregory Matthews (University of Massachusetts-Amherst), and Cheng Zheng (University of Washington). They will present their papers in a scientific session as part of the regular JSM program at 2 p.m. on July 30.

The scientific program includes many sessions about risk versus propensity score–based matching methods; bias reduction, causal modeling, and combining information in comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies; health care provider profiling; missing data; and recent advances for medical cost analysis. A topic-contributed panel on scoring systems for person-reported outcome measurements features experts who will lead an interactive discussion.

Additionally, the section has a full lineup of roundtable discussions about causal direction and model evaluation in structural equations, the relationship between statisticians and patients, adaptive Bayesian dose-finding designs, the impact of CER on clinical research, analysis of patient-reported outcomes, health care policy and the pharmaceutical industry, working in a developing country, and visiting Australasia for statistics and health policy.

If you have questions or comments about the HPSS program or activities, contact Chris Schmid, section chair at chrishschmid@gmail.com; Yulei He, JSM program chair, at he@hcp.med.harvard.edu; and Frank Yoon, section publications officer, at fyoon@mathematica-mpr.com.

Roundtables

• Causal Direction and Model Evaluation in Structural Equation Models, with Douglas David Gunzler of Case Western Reserve University
• What Do Statisticians Have to Do With Patients?, with Laura A. Hatfield of Harvard Medical School
• Issues in Adaptive Bayesian Dose-Finding Designs, with Thomas M. Braun or the University of Michigan
• Health Care Policy, Entitlements, and the Pharmaceutical Industry, with T. Ceesay and Darcy Hille of Merck & Co., Inc.
• Do You Want to Visit Australasia?, with Louise M. Ryan of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
• Preparing to Work in a Developing Country, with Mark Griffin of the Australian Development Agency for Statistics and Information Systems
• The Impact of Comparative Effectiveness Research on the Clinical Research Enterprise, with Sheldon Greenfield of the Health Policy Research Center
• Methods for Analyzing Patient-Reported Outcomes, with Kelly Zou of Pfizer Inc.

Invited Sessions

• Confronting the Statistical Challenges of Measuring Health Care Provider Performance
• Combining Information in Comparative Effectiveness Research
• Reducing Bias in Studies of Comparative Effectiveness: Applications from Mental Health

Topic-Contributed Sessions

• Risk Versus Propensity Scoring as a Basis for Matched Estimation of Treatment Effects
• Recent Developments in Statistical Methods for Missing Data
• Monitoring the Early Effects of the Affordable Care Act Using National Center for Health Statistics Data
• Beyond Binary Networks: Models and Processes on Relational Data Systems with Valued Edges
• Section on Health Policy Statistics Student Paper Competition Winners
• Recent Advances in the Analysis of Medical Cost Data

Topic-Contributed Panel

Scoring Systems for Person-Reported Outcome Measurements

Contributed Sessions

• Comparative Effectiveness Research and Causal Modeling
• Applications of Modern Regression Methodologies to Health Policy Studies
• Recent Advances of Statistical Application to the Health Policy Studies

For details about any of these sessions, visit the JSM 2012 online program.