Methodology

The department’s hallmark is the use of state-of-the art epidemiologic methods to study the aetiology of diseases, the effects of medical interventions and the prognosis of patients. For that purpose, methods for (observational) epidemiologic research are developed, tested, and implemented. The development of new methodology is closely linked to research that is ongoing at the department and the methodological focus is therefore on methods for causal inference, prediction modelling, and meta-ana

Ambition

Our ambition is to develop, evaluate and implement epidemiological, statistical, and data science methods to improve the design and analysis of clinical epidemiological studies.

The rapid developments in epidemiological research, with more and more data from various data sources becoming available, requires continuous efforts to improve methodology.

We aim to develop methods to improve causal inference, by considering methods that control for confounding, selection bias, measurement error and alternative epidemiologic study designs. This includes methods that use routinely collected population data (e.g.,  Statistics Netherlands, CBS) and health care data (e.g. ,electronic patient files or pharmacy data), methods for (causal) prediction methods, and methods that synthesize data from different sources (e.g., meta-analysis, self-learning healthcare systems).

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Ambition

Our ambition is to develop, evaluate and implement epidemiological, statistical, and data science methods to improve the design and analysis of clinical epidemiological studies.

The rapid developments in epidemiological research, with more and more data from various data sources becoming available, requires continuous efforts to improve methodology.

We aim to develop methods to improve causal inference, by considering methods that control for confounding, selection bias, measurement error and alternative epidemiologic study designs. This includes methods that use routinely collected population data (e.g.,  Statistics Netherlands, CBS) and health care data (e.g. ,electronic patient files or pharmacy data), methods for (causal) prediction methods, and methods that synthesize data from different sources (e.g., meta-analysis, self-learning healthcare systems).

Position in international context

We have many ongoing international collaborations and are actively involved in international initiatives to improve methods in medical research, such as the STRATOS initiative (methodological guidance for observational studies: stratos-initiative.org/) and NEXT (natural experiments study group (next-studygroup.org). We achieved visiting professorships at the University of Aarhus and the University of Ghent and participate in editorial boards of methodological and clinical journals.   

The program attracts funding from national (ZonMw) and international (EU) funding bodies.

Highlights and achievements

Results of our methodological research are published in high impact methodological journals (e.g., Epidemiology, European Journal of Epidemiology, Statistics in Medicine, Research Synthesis Methods). Furthermore, we actively aim to improve the quality of medical research by  reaching out to medical researchers, providing guidance papers on methodology in journals such as the British Medical Journal and European Journal of Endocrinology. 

We actively reach out to society, as members of the Dutch Health Council (gezondheidsraad) and by participating in public debates.

Researchers on Methodology

  • Prof. Dr Saskia le Cessie
  • Prof. Dr Olaf. M. Dekkers
  • Prof. Dr Rolf H.H. Groenwold