Seattle Symposium Program

 

Session 1: Causal inference in randomized studies 

November 22, 2025 | 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

Keynote:

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Greg Levin

Appropriate implementation of the estimands framework in clinical trials 

Gregory Levin, PhD, Associate Director for Statistical Science and Policy, Office of Biostatistics, Food and Drug Administration

 

BREAK

Speakers:

Exploring causal inference methods for clinical trials

Florian Lasch, PhD, Biostatistics Specialist, European Medicines Agency

Unveiling estimands: potential, pitfalls, perspective

Mouna Akacha, PhD, Group Head of Statistical Methodology, Novartis

Assessing spillover effects among staff in implementation interventions

Alisa J. Stephens Shields, PhD, Associate Professor of Biostatistics in Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

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Panel Discussion:

  • Moderator: Janet Wittes, PhD, Consultant
  • Panelists:
    • Gregory Levin, PhD, Associate Director for Statistical Science and Policy, Office of Biostatistics, Food and Drug Administration
    • Dan Scharfstein, ScD, Chief of the Division of Biostatistics, Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah School of Medicine
    • Kelley Branch, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Associate Director Clinical Trials Service Unit, University of Washington
    • Qing Liu, PhD, Senior Director, Design and Innovation, Amgen

Session Chair:

Andrea Rotnitzky, PhD, Professor of Biostatistics, University of Washington School of Public Health

 

Session 2: Causal inference in observational studies

November 23, 2025 | 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

Keynote:

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Maria Glymour

Evidence triangulation in dementia research

Maria Glymour, SD, Chair and Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Boston University

 
BREAK

Speakers:

Assessing vaccine effectiveness in observational studies via nested trial emulation

Michael Hudgens, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Evaluating the impact of longitudinal treatment strategies when patients are informatively monitored, with application to ventilation strategies for intensive care patients

Ruth Keogh, PhD, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Medical Statistics Department; Co-Director, Centre for Data and Statistics Science for Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Leah Pirondini, PhD, Department of Medical Statistics, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Strategies for enhancing transparency and interpretability of findings from clinical studies

Susan Gruber, PhD, MPH, MS, Co-Founder, TL Revolution

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Panel Discussion:

  • Moderator: Steven R. Cole, PhD, Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor, Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill)
  • Panelists:

Session Chair:

Andrea Rotnitzky, PhD, Professor of Biostatistics, University of Washington School of Public Health

 

Session 3: Data fusion in causal inference 

November 24, 2025 | 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

Keynote:

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Tianxi Cai

Unlocking the potential of EHR data for real-world evidence: opportunities and challenges

Tianxi Cai, ScD, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School; John Rock Professor of Population and Translational Data Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

 

BREAK

Speakers:

Causal approaches for hybrid randomized clinical trials with longitudinal outcomes

Jiawen Zhu, PhD, Senior Principal Statistical Scientist, Genentech

Integrating diverse evidence sources in clinical research: causal inference at the intersection of trials and real-world evidence

Shu Yang, PhD, Professor of Statistics, North Carolina State University

Trial augmentation using external data and foundation models

Issa Dahabreh, MD, MS, ScD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

BREAK


Panel Discussion

  • Moderator: Dan Scharfstein, ScD, Chief of the Division of Biostatistics, Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah School of Medicine
  • Panelists:

Session Chair:

Alex Luedtke, PhD, Faculty, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School

 

 

Session 4: Causal inference: past, present and future 

November 25, 2025 | 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

Keynote:

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Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen

Fortified Proximal Causal Inference with many imperfect negative controls

Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen, PhD, Professor of Biostatistics, Biostatistics and Epidemiology; Professor of Statistics and Data Science; The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

 
BREAK

Speakers:

Inferential replicability for online decision-making algorithms

Susan A. Murphy, PhD, Mallinckrodt Professor of Statistics and of Computer Science; Associate Faculty, Kempner Institute; Harvard University

Outcomes trials in diabetes and obesity – casual inference needed?

Henrik Ravn, PhD, Senior Statistical Director, Novo Nordisk

Causal AI for clinical care: deep causal behavioral policy learning

Maya Petersen, PhD, Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California Berkeley

BREAK


Panel Discussion

  • Moderator: Andrea Rotnitzky, PhD, Professor of Biostatistics, University of Washington School of Public Health
  • Panelists:
    • Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen, PhD, Professor of Biostatistics, Biostatistics and Epidemiology; Professor of Statistics and Data Science; The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
    • Mark van der Laan, PhD, Professor, Biostatistics and Statistics, University of California, Berkeley
    • Elizabeth A. Stuart, PhD, AM, Chair and Professor, Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Session Chair:

Alex Luedtke, PhD, Faculty, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School