The Effective Statistician - in association with PSI

Becoming a supervisor changes things dramatically at work for you. It did for me and Simon helped me by openly providing deep insights into his years of a supervisor - especially his failures and dramtic moments.

Everybody knows such situations: tight timelines, high expectations and many things to do! But how can we work effectively in such situations. Many different productivity experts have written about this topic. In this episode, I’m speaking about how to implement these approaches and also my personal learnings and challenges during a time, where I needed them. I’m applying and discussing the follow...

Leadership skills for statisticians represents a common theme across many episodes of this podcast. As leadership consists of many different aspects, it is important to learn from other statisticians, that exhibit these skills. In this episode, we talk with Gemma and Margaret, who have run successful leadership courses within PSI. We cover the following topics: What are the core leadership skills...

Are you still counting tables? Do you worry about having to many of them? Do you wonder how to get an overview across all the results? In this episode, we will talk about this thoughts and we will explore, how tables fit into the bigger picture.  We will also discuss alternative ways to deal with results, which will: - save you time - decrease the costs - speed up the process - and increase the qu...

Do you think, you have nothing to add to a statistical conference? Are you afraid of sharing your achievements? Do you wonder, why you should put in the effort on top of your day-to-day job? All these thoughts and questions will be addressed in this episode with Paul Terrill, the chair of the scientific committee of PSI. Beyond the questions above, we will also talk about the logistics and practic...

We cover these topics: Why should you care What to do What to avoid

Understand multiplicity challenges in practical situations Learn how to actually implement it Learn where to get further information

In part 2 of this interview with Walt Offen, we cover: Having courage to speak up in all settings Listen carefully to others; ignore rank within the company Instituting any new rule or policy must affect the leader equally Grab opportunities when they come your way, even if you do not feel ready. See the issue from other’s perspectives Understand, appreciate, and celebrate diversity of thought, pe...

In this episode, I have the privilege to interview Walt Offen. A statistician that is about to end an amazing career over a couple of decades of working in the pharmaceutical industry. Walt organized together, what he believes to be the 20 key attributes of highly successful leaders. They are organized in no particular order but enriched with great stories. Of course, there is a difference between...

In this very short episode, I'm stepping back from the day-to-day business and reflect about why we go to work every day. I have a very personal story about it, that helped me to see things very clearly and I'm sharing this in this episode. Further, many of you will listen this during vacation time and thus, I'm also touching on the importance of taking a break. There is no episode next week as we...

Indirect comparisons provide evidence, when no direct clinical trials are available. However, the different approaches come with various limitations. Some more recent approaches take into account the baseline characteristics to reduce the bias in the estimates of the treatment effects. In todays episode, I'm talking with one the worlds experts on this topic - Nicky Welton - who has published exten...

theeffectivestatistician.com Every statistician in the health sector must know about estimands and how to apply the estimand framework. In this episode we introduce the topic using a case study. We’ll cover How does the HTA system in Germany work? What are the 4 critical elements for the estimands framework? How does the application of the estimand framework differ in study planning vs post-hoc?

Today I'm looking back at the PSI conference 2018 in Amsterdam. You'll learn about my personal highlights and key take aways from the conference. I have also interviewed some interesting people from the conference for you to get some feeling about the atmosphere at this amazing event. In this episode, I'm  covering the following episodes: Nupur Kolis key note speach in the plenary session  about “...

theeffectivestatistician.com As a statistician we delegate all the time with programming being probably the most prevalent example. In this episode, we start by showing in two personal examples how delegation improves your productivity amazingly or how it can lead into complete disaster. Furthermore we cover the following questions: - Why is delegation so important? - Why are not only managers del...

theeffectivestatistician.com In this episode we have our first non-statistician as a guest. Julia has build her own consulting and training company Zestfor. She and her team specialise in developing Training programmes and resources scientifically tailored for technical markets – including Pharmaceutical, IT, and Life Sciences. Getting things done through others is a key part or even the definitio...

theeffectivestatistician.com In order to make new drugs available to patients in Australia, a successful interaction with the PBAC – the Australian HTA body is needed. Alan Brnabic lives in Australia and collected a lot of experience with these submissions over the years. In this episode, we cover: - the basics of understanding how the PBAC works, - why a successful PBAC submission is important, -...

theeffectivestatistician.com In this podcast episode, we discuss an important part of leadership - proactive behaviour. Or simply put - drive! As a statistician, you’re day-to-day approach about this topic will build up to long-term success. We discuss various aspects of drive including: - how it relates to your goals, - what it takes to think strategically, - which role innovation has here, - wha...

Ok – not everything, but in this episode you will get all the tips to make sure, you avoid the most common mistakes and that your code looks professional. Shafi Chowdhury is an expert programmer who has developed a style guide, which his clients apply broadly. He regularly gives trainings on SAS programming and build his own company based on these skills. He walks us through the different points a...

theeffectivestatistician.com In this episode, we’ll cover an amazing story by one of the best programmers and mentors I ever worked with - Shafi Chowdhury (www.shaficonsultancy.com). We’ll explore how it changed from being a freelance programmer only to building his company on the side. He had a great vision in mind, that drove him forward. You’ll also hear about his approach to teaching and mento...

In this episode we share out ideas and experience, which mindset sets up statisticians for success. We cover topics around: - Leading people - Convincing business partners - Delivering value and selling it - and what does selling means - Thinking outside the status quo to improve things in the long run  - Always learning about the business and the people in the business - Learning about statistica...

The guest in this episode represents the sponsor of this show - Nigel Howitt - current chair of PSI. After a short introduction of Nigel and his experience with PSI, we will cover the following topics: - How can someone, that is interested become a new PSI member? - What rules are there for students? - If you’re a data scientist in the pharma industry- is PSI the right association? - How to get mo...

In this podcast episode, we tackle a difficult topic for a podcast, but Zak provides lots of expertise in this field and will introduce you to what visual analytics is and how it will help you. Furthermore, we touch on questions like: What is the difference that visual analytics plays in 'exploring/learning' and 'messaging'? Why is visual analytics important? Why should I care? How does the job of...

If we think of world experts, we often think of people, that are candidates for the Nobel prize. We tend to have the believe, that we will never be able to achieve such a status. Actually most of us probably don’t even think about getting to this level. This is why we are so happy to have Claire Brittain as our guest on the show. In an ordinary role of a statistician working in early phase, she ha...

In todays episode, we take a look into the future - the future of PSI and how it will impact you. Both candidates, that run for becoming chair of PSI - Lucy Rowell and Naomi Givens - speak about their vision in our interview today. Of course, this episode will help you to decide who to vote for, but it will also help you to understand how to benefit from PSI by becoming an active member. Both cand...

Do you have a lot of email ping-pong, where emails go back and forth many times – too many times? Are you aware about the brand of you, that you communicate with your email style? Is email your default communication tool? Then this episode is for you. We have researched various articles on good email writing copies and distilled the best for you in this episode. By listening to this episode, you w...