Annual Report of Subcommittee / Epidemiology
Report Date / 30/Jun/2016
Report Author(s) / Saskia le Cessie
Subcommittee Start date / Aug/2009
Chair /
  1. Saskia le Cessie (Netherlands) since aug/2015

Secretary /
  1. Christina Bamia (Greece) since aug 2015

Members /
  1. Harbajan Chadha-Boreham (Switzerland) since Aug/2009
  2. Adriano Decarli (Italy) since Aug/2009
  3. Catherine Quantin (France) since Aug/2009
  4. Willi Sauerbrei (Germany) since Aug/2009
  5. Ewout Steyerberg (Netherlands) since Aug/2009
  6. Vana Sypsa (Greece) since Aug/2009 (ex-chair)
  7. Agus Salim (Australia) since Aug/2013
  8. Tim Ramsay (Canada) since Aug 2015 (stepped down in 2014 but re-joined in Aug 2015)
  9. Nathalie Stoer (Norway)

Terms of Reference
(1) Advise the Scientific Programme Committee of the annual ISCB meetings, if needed, on relevant topics in epidemiology for establishing invited sessions and choosing invited speakers.
(2) Establish connections with Epidemiological Societies and organise mutual sessions, courses or workshops at our conferences or elsewhere.
(3) Generate awareness and discussions in the Society of guidelines for conducting, analysing and reporting epidemiological studies.
Report
Membership:
The subcommittee now comprises 11 members, with one new member, and one re-joining member in 2015.
Website with links to different EPI societies
Saskia le Cessie went through the ISCB-epi subcom web page, checked the links and changed out-dated information
Proposing courses for ISCB 2016
In 2015 the organisers of ISCB 2016 launched a call for courses in the 2016 meeting. After extensive discussions the subcom came up with a list of possible topics and send the list to the organisor. One of the four courses of ISCB 2016 is on causal inference and mediation analysis at the ISCB 2016 meeting.
Discussion: Petition: data saves life
Natahlie Soer attended us all on the Petition Data Saves Lives, a petition against laws to limit the use of health care data (in order to protect privacy).
STRATOS (STRengthening Analytical Thinking for Observational Studies) initiative
The epidemiology subcom is a link between the ISCB and STRATOS. The idea for STRATOS was first presented in the Epi subcommittee at ISCB2011 and the initiative was formally launched at ISCB2013. It aims to derive guidance documents for design and analysis of observational studies. It is a large collaboration of experts in many different areas of biostatistical research (meanwhile nine topic groups). The initiative is chaired by Willi Sauerbrei and Michal Abrahamowicz, both members of the Epidemiology subcommittee when it was founded in 2009. Four other member of the Epi-Subcommitte (Le Cessie, Chadha-Boreham, Quantin and Steyerberg) are also members of STRATOS. Since 2013 STRATOS organized an invited session at the annual ISCB meetings to present new results. There are four meetings arranged in 2016: at HEC 2016 STRATOS will be presented to an audience including many epidemiologist, there is a STRATOS meeting at the ICB 2016 and at the ISCB 2016, and there is a STRATOS workshop at the at the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery. There is a general increase in members (at the moment 80). Several Topic groups have started writing guidance papers. More details can be found on the website of the initiative (
Communication with epidemiology societies
There is a list with epidemiological societies but it needs some updating. Now that STRATOS is writing the first guidance papers it is a good moment to contact them.
Saskia le Cessie had contact with the Dutch Society of Epidemiology (VvE) who recently set up a working group for Responsible Epidemiologic Research Practice (RERP). This working group has developed a guideline about how epidemiologic research should be conducted in the Netherlands to increase value and reduce waste in epidemiologic research and increase transparency and accountability. The chair of this working group is aware of STRATOS.

1