INAUGURAL EUROCONFERENCE SUMMARY


  .:. 2nd International Conference Summary
  .:. Minutes of the EMR-IBS Business Meeting (Jan 10, 2003)
  .:. Pictures from the conference


2nd International Conference Summary (as it appeared in the Biometrics Bulletin)

The Eastern Mediterranean Region of the International Biometric Society (EMR-IBS) founded in January 2001, held its 2-nd conference, January 7-10, 2003, in Antalya, Turkey. The conference with host the Cukurova University of Adana, Turkey, was supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, NCI, IBC, TEVA Pharmaceutical of Israel, Professor Laurence Freedman and other sponsors. The seven countries comprising the EMR-IBS region are Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Jordan, The Palestinian Authority and Turkey. The conference was very successful in bringing together over two hundred Biostatisticians from the countries of the region along with distinguished speakers from all parts of the world. A big audience was attracted by the two pre-conference courses, one on "Phase II Clinical Trials", by James Schlesselman, from the University of Miami, and the other one on "Linear Mixed Models", by Geert Verbeke, from the Catholic University Leuven, Belgium and Geert Molenberghs, from Limburgs University, Belgium.

Yalcin Kekec, the rector of Cukurova University, Refik Burgut, the Chair of the Local Organizing Committee and Secretary/Treasurer of EMR-IBS along with Laurence Freedman, President of EMR-IBS welcomed the participants during the opening session. The keynote address on "Designs and Analyses of Two Phase Studies" was given by the President of IBS, Norman Breslow. Remarkable talks were given and new developments were presented by the invited speakers in numerous sessions: Steven Lagakos, from Harvard University and John Lewis, from the Medicine Control Agency of London, UK, in the session on "Clinical Trials", chaired by Urania Dafni, from the University of Athens, Greece; Stergios Tzortzios, University of Thessaly, Greece in the session on "Biometrical Applications in Agriculture", chaired by Fibri Akdeniz, from Cukurova University; Taesung Park, from the University of Pittsburgh, in the session on "Statistical Methods for Microarray Experiments", chaired by Carol Redmond, also from the University of Pittsburgh; Geert Verbeke, in the session on "Developments in Longitudinal Analysis", chaired by David Zucker, from Hebrew University, Israel; James Schlesselman, in the session on "Women's and Children's Health", chaired by Orly Manor, from Hebrew University, Israel; Andrea Rotnitzky, from Harvard University, in the session on "Handling Missing and Error-prone Data in Clinical Trials", chaired by Malka Gorfine, from Hebrew University, Israel; Elia Beganzoli, from the University of Milan, Italy, in the session on "Strategies for Analysis of Survival Data", chaired by Geert Molenberghs; Joachim Hartung, from the University of Dortmund, Germany, in the session on "Meta-analysis", chaired by Heike Bickeboller, from the University of Gottingen, Germany; Max Parkin, from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, France, in the session on "Cancer Registration and Epidemiology", chaired by Refik Burgut; David Faraggi from the University of Haifa, Israel, in the session on "Statistical Evaluation of Diagnostic Markers, chaired by Andrea Rotnitzky; and Christine McLaren, from the University of California, in the session on "Methods in Genetic Epidemiology", chaired by Yoav Benjamini, from Tel Aviv University, Israel.

A lively roundtable discussion with big audience participation and optimistic conclusion was held on "The Future of Biostatistical Science in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and Elsewhere" chaired by Marvin Zelen, from Harvard University, and panel members Refik Burgut, Urania Dafni, and Ori Davidov, from the University of Haifa, Israel. Contributing papers were presented in parallel sessions: in two sessions on "Clinical Trials", one chaired by Maria Gracia Valsecchi, from the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, and the other one chaired by Mohamed Shoukri, from the King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Saudi Arabia; in two sessions on "Statistical Methods", one chaired by Ben Reiser, from the University of Haifa, Israel, and the other one chaired by Joachim Hartung; in two sessions on "Biometrical Applications in Agriculture", one chaired by Stergios Tzortzios and the other one chaired by Ergun Karaagaoglu, from Hacettepe University, Turkey; in the session on "Time Series" chaired by Geer Verbeke; in the session on "Statistical Evaluation of Diagnostic and Surrogate Markers", chaired by Laurence Freedman, from Gertner Institute, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; in the session on "Infectious Disease Epidemiology" chaired by Aris Perperoglou, from Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands; and in the session on "Health Management Problems" chaired by Ping Hu, from NCI.

Professor Laurence Freedman, the very successful president of EMR-IBS for the first two years of its existence (2001-2003), chose to step down from the executive committee for the next two years. He has been the driving force behind the creation and growth of the EMR region, and he was honored by all the members, the executive committee and the conference organizing committee in a special ceremony. He will be generously providing his help and advice to the newly elected executive committee.

During the Business Meeting of EMR-IBS, which was held on the second day of the conference, Saudi Arabia, applied to become the eighth member of the Region. The application was welcomed with enthusiasm by the other members. Congratulations are also due to the new officers elected to the executive committee for the next two years (2003-2005):

Elected representatives of the countries of the Region are:

  • Cyprus: Alex Karagrigoriou, University of Cyprus
  • Egypt: Amal Samy Ibrahim, Egypt Cancer Institute
  • Greece: Stergios Tzortzios, University of Thessaly
  • Israel: David Zucker, The Hebrew University
  • Jordan: Muhammad Bassam Qasem, Jordan Cancer Registry
  • Palestinian Authority: Mahmoud Okasha, University of Gaza
  • Saudi Arabia: Mohamed Shoukri, King Faisal Specialist Hospital
  • Turkey: Ozlem Ilk, Middle East Technical University

Conferences of the EMR are held bi-annually, with the next one scheduled for the Spring of 2005 in Corfu, Greece. The 2nd EMR-IBS conference chair Refik Burgut, along with the other members of the local organizing committee, Omer Gebizlioglu from Ankara University, Osman Saka from Akdeniz University, Ilihan Tuncer and Ali Kocabas from Cukurova University, effectively ran a wonderful conference. Thanks are also due to the great job done by the members of the scientific committee: the chairman, Laurence Freedman; Refik Burgut; Urania Dafni; David Faraggi; Constantine Gatsonis; Geert Molenberghs; Sagary Nokoe; Carol Redmond; Andrea Rotnitzky; Stergios Tzortzios; Maria Gracia Valsechi; Ilia Vonta and Marvin Zelen. Their effort produced a remarkable conference stressing the message of collaboration between the member states of the Region.

Pictures from the conference and news from the Eastern Mediterranean Region can be accessed from the link on the top frame of this site.

Inaugural Euroconference Summary (as it appeared the Biometrics Bulletin, April-June 2001)

The newly founded Eastern Mediterranean Region of the International Biometric Society (EMR-IBS) held its Inaugural Euroconference, January 7-10, 2001, in Athens, Greece. The conference with host the University of Haifa and co-host the University of Athens was supported by the European Commission, NCI, IBC, University of Haifa, FSTRF and other sponsors. The seven countries comprising the new IBS region are Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Jordan, The Palestinian Authority and Turkey. The conference was very successful in bringing together almost a hundred Biostatisticians from the countries of the region along with distinguished speakers from all parts of the world.

The memorable keynote address on "Statisticians and Statistics: Used or Utilized in Decision-Making?" was given by Jonas Ellenberg of Westat, in the opening session chaired by David Faraggi, from the University of Haifa. Insightful talks were given and exciting new developments were presented by the invited speakers: Marvin Zelen, from Harvard University, John Crowley, from the University of Washington, and Mitchell Gail, from the National Cancer Institute, on "Current Advances in Biostatistics", in a session chaired by Urania Dafni, from the University of Athens; Mahesh Parmar, from the Medical Research Council, Geert Molenberghs, from Limburgs Universitair Centrum, and Laurence Freedman, from Gertner Institute, on "Surrogate Endpoints in Clinical Trials", in a session chaired by David Zucker, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Susan Ellenberg, from the FDA, and Gordon Lan, from Pfizer Corporation on "Data Monitoring in Clinical Trials", in a session chaired by Laurence Freedman; Andrea Rotnitzky, from Harvard University and Chris Wild from the University of Auckland, on "Measurement Error and Missing Data Methods", in a session chaired by Vicror Kipnis, from NCI; Martin Schumacher, from the University of Freiburg, and Per Kragh Andersen, from the University of Copenhagen, on "Survival Analysis", in a session chaired by Benjamin Reiser, from the University of Haifa.

A very lively roundtable discussion was held on "Statistics of Pharmaceutical Trials and Drug Regulation" chaired by Zvi Gilula, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and panel members John Crowley, Susan Ellenberg, Urania Dafni, Gordon Lan, and Stephen Evans, from the Medicine Control Agency. Contributing papers were presented in parallel sessions: on "Epidemiology", chaired by Benjamin Eichhorn, from Rider University; on "Multiple Comparisons and Multivariate Data" chaired by Yoav Benjamini, from Tel-Aviv University; on "Survival Analysis" chaired by M. Bassam Qasem, from the Jordan Cancer Registry; on "Time Series and Longitudinal Data", chaired by H. Refic Burgut, from Cukurova University; on "Collaborative/Regional Projects", chaired by Omer Gebizlioglu, from Ankara University; on "General Methodology I",chaired by Alexander Goldenshluger from Haifa University; on "Calibration, Measurement Error, and Missing Data", chaired by Filia Vonta, from the University of Cyprus; on "General Methodology II", chaired by Stergios Tzortzios, from the University of Thessalia; and on "Data Monitoring in Clinical Trials", chaired by Laurence Freedman.

The session on "Disease Screening" chaired by Marvin Zelen, was dedicated to the memory of Myrto Lefkopoulou, faculty member of the department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, a dear friend and distinguished scientist. Ori Davidov, from the University of Haifa, Ping Hu, from NCI, and Sandra Lee, from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, all graduates of the doctorate program of the department and former students of Myrto paid a tribute to her memory.

A decision to apply for the creation of a new IBS region in Eastern Mediterranean, (with a membership of over a hundred members) was taken at the conference. During the Inaugural Business Meeting, officers were elected to the executive committee for the next two years (2001-2003):

Elected representatives of the countries of the Region are:
  • Cyprus: Filia Vonta, University of Cyprus
  • Egypt: Amal Samy Ibrahim, Egypt Cancer Institute
  • Greece: Stergios Tzortzios, University of Thessalia
  • Israel: Benjamin Reiser, University of Haifa
  • Jordan: Muhammad Bassam Qasem, Jordan Cancer Registry
  • Palestinian Authority: Ziad Abdeen, Al-Quds University
  • Turkey: Omer Gebizlioglu, Ankara University

Conferences of the EMR will be held bi-annually, with the next one scheduled for the Fall of 2002 in Turkey. The inaugural conference was originally going to be held in Haifa, Israel but due to the recent instability in the region it was moved at a very short notice to Athens, Greece. The conference chair Laurence Freedman, along with David Faraggi and Urania Dafni, members of the organizing committee who effectively implemented the location change, stressed the message of collaboration between the member states of the Region that led to this successful conference and made the wish that in the very near future, an even more successful EMR conference will be held in Israel. Thanks are due to the great job done by the other members of the organizing committee: Ziad Abdeen - Palestinian Authority, Yoav Benjamini - Israel, Omer Gebizlioglu - Turkey, Amal Samy Ibrahim - Egypt, Mahesh K. B. Parmar - United Kingdom, M. Bassam Qasem - Jordan, Benjamin Reiser - Israel, Filia Vonta - Cyprus, David Zucker - Israel.

The positive momentum created by this exciting conference is a great start for the EMR region materializing already in new collaborations and triggering local and across countries smaller meetings. The wish is that the future of the EMR will be as successful as its beginning.

Pictures from the conference and news from the Eastern Mediterranean Region are posted at www.nurs.uoa.gr/emr-ibs