Public Health, Versorgungsforschung und HTA

Causal Inference for Assessing Effectiveness in Real World Data and Clinical Trials: A Practical Hands-on Workshop

5-Day Certified University Course

19 - 23 May 2025

Course Flyer 2024:
Causal Inference for Assessing Effectiveness in Real World Data and Clinical Trials

COURSE OVERVIEW

The course runs over 5 days and combines lectures on theoretical concepts, discussions, case study exercises, interactive group work and hands-on computer sessions. Practical applications using real world case examples address health interventions from different health technologies and different disease areas. On day 3, participants have an extended break during the afternoon to review course materials, use office hours for questions or consulting for their own research work, catch up on emails, or energize themselves while relaxing. They reconvene on Thursday morning for the next session.
The course will be an online synchronous course (Austrian time zone) scheduled from 9am to 5pm. The course will not be recorded.

The course is aimed at members of:

Healthcare & health policy organizations, national HTA agencies
Regulatory agencies (EMA, FDA, etc.)
Pharmaceutical & medical device industry
Academia and research institutions
Health insurances/sickness funds
Consultancy organizations

Course Pre-requisites:
This is an introductory course. A pre-requisite is basic knowledge of biostatistics and familiarity with the software packages Stata and R or the willingness to learn. Course language is English. Computer examples will be programmed in Stata and R.

THE COURSE COVERS THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

Introduction to Causal Inference
Overview of the problem (causality), causal effects of point actions and time-varying actions, directed acyclic graphs (DAGs), exercises
Optional: Stata Tutorial
Overview on causal study designs, different causal methods
Overview on treatment switching adjustment methods 1: naïve methods, software exercises
Overview on treatment switching adjustment methods 2: Inverse probability (of censoring) weighting (IPW) with marginal structural models (MSM), software exercises
Adjustment methods 3: Two-stage adjustment, software exercises
Overview on treatment switching adjustment methods 4: g-estimation with rank-preserving structural failure time models (RPSFTM), software exercises
Recommendations on appropriate methods
Optional: Course Examination

In addition, Teaching Assistants will be available for software programming exercises

COURSE DOCUMENTATION

Certificates will be provided to all participants after the course. For those who are interested in a graded course performance record, we are offering a course examination subsequent to the Causal Inference Workshop. The exam is designed to evaluate the understanding of the basic concepts in causal inference and is administered on the last day of the course. The exam is a closed-book test mainly consisting of multiple-choice answers, short calculations or open text questions, which are drawn from the major topic areas of the course. Further information regarding the examination and enrollment will be provided after registration.

HERE YOU CAN REGISTER

COURSE FACULTY

Course Director/ Lecturer

Dr. phil. Felicitas Kühne, MSc.
Senior Scientist

felicitas.kuehne@umit-tirol.at
t +43 50 8648 3926
f +43 50 8648 673926

Lecturer

Prof. Ian White, MA, MSc, PhD

Professor of Statistical Methods for Medicine; MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London

Lecturer

Prof. Nicholas Latimer, BSc, MSc, PhD

Senior Research Fellow in Health Economics, Health Economics and Decision Science, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

Course Director / Lecturer

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Uwe Siebert, MPH, MSc
Head of Department/Head of Institute

public-health@umit-tirol.at
t +43 50 8648 3930
f +43 50 8648 673930

Course Coordinator

Dr. phil. Marjan Arvandi, M.Stat.
Senior Scientist

marjan.arvandi@umit-tirol.at
t +43 50 8648 3945
f +43 50 8648 673945

Course Co-Coordinator

Isabelle Stummvoll
HTADS Program Coordinator, Research Assistant

isabelle.stummvoll@umit-tirol.at
t +43 50 8648 4023
f +43 50 8648 674023

HERE YOU CAN REGISTER

REGISTRATION FEES

Course fee (public/academic sector): Euro 1.980
Early booking fee until 05 February 2024: Euro 1.480

Course fee (commercial/private sector): Euro 3.850
Early booking fee until 05 February 2024: Euro 2.850

VAT is not payable.

Course fees include a comprehensive digital syllabus with background reading material, course notes, and Stata tutorials. Further a course certificate will be provided and 4 ECTS credits can be earned by passing the exam at the end of the course.

ACCOMMODATIONS & DIRECTIONS

There are a number of hotels near the campus. Reservations should be made when you receive your registration and payment confirmation. We have made special arrangements with hotels near the course location. After registration, you will receive more details regarding accommodation via e-mail.

Cancellation Policy

A full refund of course fees (less 15% administrative charges) will be made for cancellations received in writing at least one month prior to the workshop. Substitutes can be made but please email new delegates details when known. Cancellations made less than one month prior to the course are non-refundable/non-changeable.

In the unlikely event that, due to unforeseen circumstances or insufficient enrollment, the course has to be cancelled by the UMIT, our liability is limited to refund of course fees only. We recommend that delegates have adequate insurance cover to claim any travel or personal expenses.