The Effective Statistician - in association with PSI

We’re bringing back one of our most downloaded episodes ever – a deep dive into how adverse events should be analyzed properly. This conversation with Jan Beyersmann and Kaspar Rufibach is packed with methodological insights and practical implications for statisticians working in clinical trials. Adverse event (AE) analysis has long been approached differently from efficacy analysis, often using o...

In this special replay of one of our all-time most popular episodes, we dive deep into one of the most debated topics in the pharmaceutical industry: R vs SAS. Together with Thomas Neitmann and my co-host Sam Gardner, we compare these two powerful statistical programming tools from multiple angles — ease of learning, day-to-day usability, community support, visualization capabilities, regulatory a...

In this special replay episode — the top 3 most downloaded of all time — I’m again joined by Stuart McGuire as we explore The Chimp Paradox by Professor Steve Peters. This book provides a simple yet powerful model for understanding how our brain works — and how it often works against us if we’re not aware of it. Whether in meetings, under pressure, or dealing with self-doubt, understanding your in...

This episode ranks as the #2 most downloaded of all time—and for good reason. As data science continues to disrupt and redefine the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, statisticians everywhere are asking: Where do I fit in? In this insightful conversation, two leaders from Cytel—Yannis Jemiai, Head of Consulting and Software, and Rajat Mukherjee, Head of Data Science—share their personal jou...

This episode originally struck a chord with statisticians around the world—and for good reason. Whether you’re just starting with real-world evidence (RWE) or mentoring someone who is, this conversation is packed with practical lessons that will help you navigate the complexities of observational data with more confidence. In this special replay, guest Rachel Tham and I reflect on the real-world a...

In this thought-provoking keynote recording, Manjari Narayan takes us on a journey through one of the most pressing and promising intersections in modern science: the convergence of artificial intelligence, statistics, and biotechnology. Drawing on her extensive experience in both academia and biotech startups, Manjari explores the critical role statisticians can play in AI-driven drug discovery,...

In this special keynote episode, I’m excited to share the recording of Professor Tim Friede’s thought-provoking presentation from The Effective Statistician Conference 2024. Tim, a leading expert in biostatistics and clinical trial design, dives deep into the combination of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and real-world data (RWD)—especially in the context of rare diseases. Drawing from his wo...

In this keynote episode, Professor Sebastian Schneeweiss from Harvard Medical School shares groundbreaking insights from his extensive research into emulating randomized controlled trials (RCTs) using real-world data (RWD). Recorded live at The Effective Statistician Conference 2024, this talk explores whether non-randomized studies based on electronic health records and claims data can reach conc...

In this episode of The Effective Statistician, Alun Bedding takes the mic to explore one of the most underrated yet transformative tools in any professional's career—networking. With the PSI Conference happening, this episode offers timely insights into how statisticians—introverts and extroverts alike—can use networking to build meaningful professional relationships, accelerate their careers, and...

In this episode, Alun Bedding welcomes Emma Crawford for a powerful and personal conversation about building inclusive workplace cultures—ones where every individual can thrive. Emma shares her late diagnosis of autism and how it reshaped her experience and expectations of the workplace. Together, they explore the limitations of the traditional “reasonable adjustments” framework and introduce the...

How can oncologists and healthcare professionals keep up with the ever-growing body of research to make the best decisions for patients? In this episode, I speak with Anna Forsythe, a pharmacologist, health economist, and founder of OncoScope, a groundbreaking platform delivering daily updated systematic literature reviews (SLRs) in oncology. Drawing on decades of experience in pharma and health e...

In this episode, I’m joined by Julia Geronimi from Servier and Dr. Pavel Mozgunov from the University of Cambridge to explore a topic that’s absolutely central to advancing precision medicine—predictive biomarkers. We dive into the challenges of identifying predictive vs. prognostic biomarkers, especially in early-phase clinical trials with limited sample sizes. What makes their approach so exciti...

In this special episode, I’m sharing the recording of a webinar I co-hosted with Cytel on March 20, 2025. I was joined by an expert panel of leaders in statistics and clinical development: Yannis Jemiai, Flaminia Chiesa, and Benjamin Piske. Together, we explored how the role of statisticians is rapidly evolving in response to industry changes, data innovations, and AI-driven transformation. This r...

In this episode, I’m excited to welcome back Katrin Kupas, a statistician with deep expertise in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and real world evidence (RWE). We dive into how RWE and the new Joint Clinical Assessment (JCA) process in Europe can work together—and where the challenges lie. As the JCA becomes more central in EU regulatory and reimbursement discussions, knowing how and when to us...

As someone who found my way into statistics late—only halfway through university—I often wonder: what if more young people knew about this path earlier? In this episode, I sit down with two wonderful guests and PSI volunteers, Emma Crawford and Alex Spiers, to explore exactly that: how we, as statisticians and scientists, can inspire the next generation. We talk about the why behind investing in S...

Group sequential trials, interim analyses, final analyses, updated analyses… what do these terms actually mean, and why is there so much confusion? In this technical yet highly practical episode, I speak with Kaspar Rufibach, Principal Biostatistician at Roche, to unpack some of the most commonly misunderstood terminology and concepts in clinical trial design and analysis. If you've ever questione...

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Prof. Holger Fröhlich, who leads the AI and Data Science Group at the Fraunhofer Institute and is an honorary professor at the University of Bonn. We explored one of the hottest topics in healthcare data science right now: synthetic data. Holger and I discussed how synthetic data is generated using AI, what role digital twins could play in the f...

In this episode, I’m diving into a topic that’s very personal to me—working in an English-speaking environment as a non-native speaker. If you’ve ever felt unsure about your English skills in meetings, emails, or presentations, you’re not alone. I’ve been there myself, and I want to share what’s helped me grow more confident and effective over the years. I’ll walk you through practical strategies...

In this episode, I’m once again joined by Daniel Sabanés Bové for a deep dive into one of the most impactful tools for statisticians working with data visualization—R-Shiny. We explore how interactive data visualizations can help you iterate faster, collaborate better across functions, and focus more on the actual scientific questions rather than just coding. Daniel shares some excellent examples...

In this episode, I’m sharing three personal stories where soft skills—or better yet, human skills—made a huge difference in my work as a statistician. Whether it was building trust to access critical data, presenting results in a way that truly resonated, or negotiating a fair contract, these experiences reminded me how essential these skills are alongside our technical expertise.

In this episode, I’m joined once again by Daniel Sabanés Bové to talk all about R packages—why they’re so useful, when to create one, and how to do it effectively. Whether you’re just starting out with writing reusable functions or thinking about building a more robust and reusable R package, you’ll find plenty of hands-on advice in our discussion. Daniel shares his experiences from working at Roc...

In this episode, I welcome back Necdet Gunsoy, who’s now in a new role as the founder of EviMed, a boutique consultancy specializing in health economics, outcomes research, real-world evidence, and market access. We dive into the often tense relationship between statisticians and market access professionals, exploring why these functions struggle to collaborate and, more importantly, how we can wo...

In this episode of The Effective Statistician podcast, I dive into the art of persuasion. As statisticians and data scientists, we often rely on logic and data, but true influence requires more than just being right. Drawing from ancient Greek philosophy, I explore the three pillars of persuasion—ethos (credibility), logos (logic), and pathos (emotion)—and share practical strategies to help you ef...

In this episode of The Effective Statistician, I sit down with Kaspar Rufibach to tackle a topic that affects statisticians every day—how to interpret p-values, confidence intervals, and statistical hypotheses. We explore the differences between Fisher’s and Neyman-Pearson’s approaches, clear up common misconceptions, and discuss how misinterpreting statistical significance can lead to flawed conc...