Methods for estimating when to stop treatment and treatment duration using observational data

PhD student: Peiyu Hao

Title: Methods for estimating when to stop treatment and treatment duration using observational data

Supervisor: Raphaël Porcher

Doctoral school: ED 393 Epidémiologie et Sciences de l’Information Biomédicale, Université Paris Cité

Promotion: 2023

Thesis summary: 

Medical strategies for patients with chronic conditions often change over time, and the treatment for these patients needs to be reviewed periodically. We focus on how researchers determine when to stop a treatment or estimate the best duration of treatment using observational data in practice, and the guidance on which methodological approaches and precise statistical methods.

The objectives of thesis are listed below:

1. Address the topic of methods to estimate when to stop a treatment and treatment duration using observational data.
2. Conduct a methodological review to provide an overview of specific methods existing to address those questions, as well as evidence on which ones are used in practical application, and potential gaps and risk of bias in those applied studies.
3. Implement the methods identified as most relevant both to compare them using a numerical simulation study, and to analyze real data.