Cytel Blog

In this blog, Cytel's SVP Corey Dunham’s talks about our Functional Services teams and the qualities we seek in new hires. As our FSP division continues to grow, we are looking to hire programmers and biostatisticians. Cytel's recruitment and FSP teams are hosting a one hour long Virtual Careers Open Day on Thursday, September 10th at 11:00AM EDT. Join us to learn more about our expanding FSP team, open career opportunities and what it means to be part of Cytel. Click on the button to register for the virtual event.

As Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Yannis Jemiai plays a pivotal role in maintaining Cytel’s well-established reputation for statistical excellence and our track-record of bringing innovative analytic approaches to the development of medicines for human health. With oversight for the corporate-level Scientific Agenda, Yannis ensures Cytel continues to be known for thought leadership in adaptive designs while expanding its reputation in Bayesian statistics, Complex innovative designs, and the use of Real-World analytics for regulatory and post-approval purposes. Yannis’ research interests include adaptive trial design, causal inference, decision theory, and regulatory affairs.

In this blog we talk to Yannis about his long-standing association with Cytel, his views on adaptive designs and their future; and we get some tips from him for young statisticians, programmers and those interested in pursuing a career in this field.

Mrudula Joshi joined Cytel in July 2005 as a young SAS programmer. Last month, she celebrated her 15th year work anniversary at the company. In this blog we talk to Mrudula about her journey so far, her current role, and achievements; and we get some tips from her for young statisticians, programmers and those interested in pursuing a career in this field.

Cytel’s Biostatistics and Statistical Programming team for Functional Services provides integrated solutions, by blending the expertise of programming and the experience of statistics. As our FSP division continues to grow, we are looking to hire programmers and biostatisticians. Cytel's recruitment and FSP teams are hosting a one hour long Virtual Careers Open Day on Thursday, September 10th at 11:00 AM EDT. Join us to learn more about our expanding FSP team, open career opportunities and what it means to be part of Cytel. Click on the button to register for the virtual event.

Cytel’s Biostatistics and Statistical Programming team provides integrated solutions, by blending the expertise of programming and experience of statistics. Being a notable Functional Services Provider (FSP) in the industry, we take pride in supporting our clients as they navigate the intricacies of 21st century drug development. As our FSP division continues to grow, we are looking to hire programmers and biostatisticians. Cytel's recruitment and FSP teams are hosting a one hour long Virtual Careers Open Day on Thursday, September 10th at 11:00AM EDT. Join us to learn more about our expanding FSP team, open career opportunities and what it means to be part of Cytel. Click on the button to register for the virtual event.

Cytel has industry-leading experts in Statistical Programming with years of SAS® Programming expertise and in-depth knowledge of the specific clinical subject matter. Their insights into strategy, and high competence in project management ensure a new twist on the traditional CRO.

In February 2020 we interviewed Marc Lefebvre-Gouy who is a lead statistical programmer at Cytel in France. Marc made a career transition from genetics to statistical programming and in this interview, he speaks to us about programmers working across therapeutic areas, programming challenges across phases of a trial, and the top technical competencies every programmer must have. He also gives us a sneak peek of his hobby of cooking and his love for wine.

On March 16, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in his media briefing on COVID-19, described the coronavirus pandemic as “the defining global health crisis of our time"^[1]. The pandemic has affected 176 countries and territories around the world. WHO is urging all governments to scale-up aggressive measures to combat COVID-19 as more cases and deaths are being reported across the globe. Until a vaccine is made available, social distancing is of the utmost importance to reduce transmission and enable health systems to cope.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines social distancing as “remaining out of congregate settings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet or 2 meters) from others when possible” ^[2]. Governments in several countries have shut down public places such as parks, gyms, malls, schools, restaurants etc., for a minimum of 15 days, to be extended depending upon the situation.

In these circumstances, it is inevitable that companies worldwide also show solidarity by allowing their employees to work remotely, from the safety of their homes. In Seattle, the hub of many of America’s early COVID-19 cases, companies including Amazon, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Google advised workers to stop coming to office in late February ^[3]. With more employers taking this necessary and precautionary step, the question arises - how do we ensure that it is done right?

With only two weeks left for this fabulous year to end, we would like to thank all our blog subscribers and new readers for following and appreciating the Cytel blog. This year, we collaborated with several experts from both within and outside the company to bring to you a range of interesting topics including real-world evidence, AI, challenges in rare diseases, patient-reported outcomes, data management, and our popular series “The Good Data Submission Doctor” and “Career Perspectives”. In this blog, we share with you the top 5 Cytel blogs that resonated most with our community in 2019.

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PhUSE EU Connect 2019 was held in the beautiful city of Amsterdam between the 10th and 13th of November. This clinical data science conference comprised 19 Streams, including 150 papers, 24 posters and 3 engaging data scientists as keynote speakers. The event was well attended and had several interesting and innovative presentations. Caroline Terrill, Associate Director of Statistical Programming at Cytel UK, conducted a session “No Place Like Home: Managing Remote Programmers Remotely” and stood out as the winner in the Personnel Management category. Based on 5 years' experience of managing remote programmers, Caroline’s paper gives guidance on issues to be considered and traps to be avoided if you are managing people who work remotely.

In this blog, we share the presentations from our Statistical Programmers and summarize some of the sessions that our team members attended.

 
October 3, 2019 was an important day for the ADaM team as it marked the release of the ADaM Implementation Guidance (Ig) 1.2. Download the new guidance from the CDISC website here.

In 2018, several previews of the new Ig were made at CDISC Interchanges all around the world and at PhUSE conferences, it was only a few weeks ago that the final version was released. At first glance, the new Ig does not seem to contain a lot of new concepts and ideas. However, a critical and in-depth review clearly shows the efforts of the entire team to release this new Ig. Creating a new standard or releasing a new version of an existing standard is not an easy job. You need to ensure that you do not introduce anything that contradicts any of the existing CDISC standards. This includes, not only new variables but also any changes in existing sentences or adding entirely new sections that may cause misinterpretations or discrepancies. Moreover, every standard team member comes with their own background, company needs, and specific indication needs. It is not always easy to propose a solution that can satisfy everyone on the team.