Medical University Vienna

The Medical University of Vienna (MUW) is the largest medical organisation in Austria and one of the top-level research institutions in Europe providing Europe’s largest hospital, the AKH in Vienna. The Section of Medical Statistics at the Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems (CeMSIIS) is a leading research center in statistical methodology for innovative clinical trial design focussing on the development of adaptive design methodology for confirmatory clinical trials and the development of multiple testing procedures for the analysis of clinical trials with multiple objectives. The department is involved in numerous scientific collaborations with clinical colleagues at the MUW and supports more than 200 medical research projects each year. The key personnel of the IMS is very experienced supervising young researchers in the MUW PhD program within EU funded research programs. The MUW provides the ideal interface for PhD students to gain relevant experience in theoretical development and its application due to close relation between the university and the main hospital in Vienna.

Main research topics: adaptive and group sequential designs, clinical trial designs, statistical inference, multiple testing, subgroup analysis.

Key Personnel:

Assoc. Prof. Franz König
Supervisor: The impact of data and safety monitoring board decisions to drop treatments
Franz König is Associate Professor and head of the working group “adaptive designs” at the Section of Medical Statistics at the MUW. From 2008 till 2010 he was seconded to the European Medicines Agency (London, UK) as statistical expert. Franz has (co-)authored >80 publications in peer reviewed statistical and medical journals and has served as Guest Editor for Special Issues in the Biometrical Journal and in Statistics in Medicine.

Prof. Martin Posch
Supervisor: Development of a Biomarker Score to Identify a Subgroup of Treatment Responders
Martin Posch is professor of Medical Statistics at the MUW and head of the Section of Medical Statistics. Before he worked as statistical expert at the European Medicines Agency (London, UK) contributing to guideline development and the assessment of study designs. He has a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Vienna and was scientific assistant and associate professor at the Medical University of Vienna. Martin Posch serves as Associate Editor of Biometrics and Biometrical Journal.

Prof. Peter Bauer
Co-supervisor: The impact of data and safety monitoring board decisions to drop treatments
Peter Bauer is Emeritus Professor at the MUW since 2010. Before he was Professor of Medical Statistics and head of the Medical Statistics Department at the University of Cologne (1985-1993) and the Medical University of Vienna (1994-2010). Peter Bauer is one of the founders of the theory of adaptive designs in confirmatory clinical trials. He was editor of the Biometrical Journal (2000-2003), and associate editor of Biometrical Journal and Statistics in Medicine.

IDEAS PhD Projects supervised and located at the IMS:

• Project 4: Development of a biomarker score to identify a subgroup of treatment responders
• Project 5: The impact of data safety monitoring board decision to drop treatments