The 45th Annual Conference of the International Society for Clinical Biostatistics (ISCB), held from 21 to 25 July 2024 in Thessaloniki, was a great success. This conference is the most important international event in the field of Clinical Biostatistics. With the participation of over 650 scientists across 40 countries in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa, the conference focused on the development of methodologies and the practical application of Statistics in Medicine and Public Health. It was a showcase for innovative statistical methods and approaches for the clinical research and development of treatments and vaccines, including new, adaptive methods for implementing clinical trials developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, methods for the analysis and synthesis of a large volume of data from different sources, models for the prediction of diseases with the use of AI methods, as well as methodological approaches for combining real-world data with evidence from clinical trials.
Chairing the Local Organizing Committee and the Scientific Programme Committee were the Professors at the NKUA’s School of Medicine Vana Sypsa and Giota Touloumi, respectively. The Organizing Committee comprised faculty members at the Schools of Medicine of NKUA and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the NKUA’s Department of Mathematics, Athens University of Economics and Business, the University of Thessaly, Harokopio University of Athens, the University of Ioannina, the University of Crete, and Democritus University of Thrace. The Scientific Committee comprised scientists from Greek Universities (NKUA, AUEB) and other Universities abroad.
In his keynote speech, Professor at the University of Cambridge, Sir David Spiegelhalter, shared his many years’ experience—also focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic—about the importance of trustworthy communication of findings from statistical analysis of data to policymakers and the general public. The second invited speaker was Chris Holmes, Professor atthe University of Oxford,who discussed the role of Biostatistics in the AI era. The scientific programme included additional sessions with speakers from Universities in Greece and abroad as well as international organizations, such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (ΕΜΑ).
Many people from NKUA participated in the conference and distinguished themselves. PhD candidate Achilleas Stamoulopoulos (a graduate of the NKUA’s Department of Mathematics and the Interdepartmental Postgraduate Programme in Biostatistics and Health Data Science of the NKUA’s School of Medicine and the Department of Mathematics) won the ISCB 2024 Student Conference Award. It is important to note that Mr Stamoulopoulos is in the first year of his PhD in the NKUA’s School of Medicine under the supervision of Professor G. Touloumi. Also presenting papers at the conference were Assistant Professor F. Siannis and Associate Professor L. Meligkotsidou (Department of Mathematics, NKUA), Drs Ch. Thomadakis and S. Roussos (School of Medicine, NKUA), and Mses V. Engeli and V. Baralou (PhD candidates in the NKUA’s School of Medicine).
In addition to the scientific programme, the participants enjoyed the hospitality extended to them in Thessaloniki, explored the city and its archaeological sites, and left with the best impressions of both the conference’s organization and the country that hosted it this year.
For further information about the conference and the programme, please click on the links below:
www.iscb2024.info
https://iscb2024.info/preliminary-programme/.
