***To all interested in the Edinburgh Local Group of the Royal 
Statistical Society (RSS)*** 

Our first talk of the 2006 - 2007 session is scheduled to take place at 
6pm on Tuesday 10 October 2006. 

The full announcement is provided in text form later in this message. 
However, I would also like to draw your attention to the new website for 
the Edinburgh local group of the RSS at 
http://www.bioss.sari.ac.uk/staff/adam/rsse/ 
where you can learn more about past and future meetings of our group and 
about the workings of the RSS in general. It is anticipated that this 
site will provide an alternative route to sharing information with 
multiple recipients, given the problems that can arise with e-mail 
attachments. 

If you have further questions or difficulties in reading this email, 
please inform me by return of email. 

We hope that we will have the opportunity to meet you at our forthcoming 
meetings. 

Margaret MacDougall, Secretary and Treasurer 
[log in to unmask] 


********** October meeting announcement ************* 

Issues for academic trials units in meeting the 
expectations of emerging clinical networks: a statistician’s perspective 

John Norrie, Director, Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials (CHaRT), 
Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen 

Tuesday 10 October 2006, 6.00 – 7.00 pm (refreshments at 5.30 pm); 
members and non-members of the RSS are all most welcome to attend this 
meeting. 

Venue: International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, 14 India Street, 
Edinburgh EH3 6EZ (see above website for details)

Abstract 

This talk will reflect on major challenges for academic trials units 
involved in randomised controlled trials (RCT) supported by clinical 
networks, from the perspective of an experienced trialist and 
statistician. With the rise of the UKCRC (www.ukcrc.org 
<http://www.ukcrc.org/>) and emerging clinical networks, alongside the 
increased bureaucracy associated with RCT, and fierce competition for 
funding, clinical researchers need to align themselves with accredited 
trials units to successfully deliver their studies. Such trials units 
bring the core RCT competencies – experienced trialists, trial managers, 
IT professionals, health economists, and statisticians - under one roof 
in a sustainable environment. The talk will draw examples from the 
Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials (CHaRT, 
www.abdn.ac.uk/hsru/chart <http://www.abdn.ac.uk/hsru/chart>). In 
particular it will focus on the expectations now placed on statisticians 
in RCT, and highlight statistical aspects from the Scottish 
Collaboration of Trialists (SCoT, www.charttrials.abdn.ac.uk/scot 
<http://www.charttrials.abdn.ac.uk/scot>) involving trialists from the 
Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The talk should 
be of general interest, and in particular to statisticians involved in 
or hoping to become involved in randomised clinical trials. 






 		
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