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INDIRECT AND MIXED TREATMENT COMPARISONS: 3-day course September 17-19, 2008 Vaughan College, Leicester, UK COURSE ORGANIZERS: Prof Keith Abrams, Prof Tony Ades, Debbi Caldwell, Dr Nicola Cooper, Dr Sofia Dias, Dr Alex Sutton and Dr Nicky Welton. OVERVIEW: This course is for health economists, statisticians and decision modellers, and systematic reviewers interested in the extension of pair-wise meta-analysis to indirect and mixed treatment comparisons, in the context of either clinical effectiveness or economic evaluation. The course focuses on Bayesian methods for statistically combining evidence from networks of trials, integrating statistical estimation within a probabilistic modeling framework and uses WinBUGS throughout. The assumptions underlying both pair-wise meta-analysis and mixed treatment comparisons are critically examined. The course also covers methods for detecting and managing heterogeneity and inconsistency. This is an informal, hands-on course, based on a mixture of lectures and practical work on published datasets using the Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo package WinBUGS. Course tutors are available throughout to answer questions and help with exercises. It is a collaboration between the Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester and the Department of Community Based Medicine, University of Bristol. INTENDED AUDIENCE: (a) Anyone undertaking or managing health technology assessments, including in the context of cost-effectiveness analysis. (b) Statisticians, familiar with the principles of meta-analysis, who wish to learn about Bayesian methods for evidence synthesis particularly in the context of cost-effectiveness analysis. (c) Anyone responsible for managing systematic reviews. VENUE: Vaughan College, University of Leicester, UK http://www.le.ac.uk/lifelonglearning/courses/vaughan.html FURTHER DETAILS and booking form can be downloaded at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cobm/research/mpes > Keith R Abrams Professor of Medical Statistics & Course Director, MSc in Medical Statistics Department of Health Sciences University of Leicester 2nd Floor, Adrian Building University Road LEICESTER LE1 7RH Tel +44 (0)116 229 7266 FAX +44 (0)116 229 7250 Email [log in to unmask] WWW www.le.ac.uk/hs/kra1 MSc Med Stats http://tinyurl.com/2fwame