ScHARR ONLINE Course - Advanced Simulation Methods

Within healthcare decision-making, cohort Markov models and decision trees are frequently used. However, in some situations, these are not the most appropriate modelling methods. This course provides an in-depth review of individual-level simulation rationale, techniques and methodologies with a particular focus on discrete event simulation and its practical application to inform healthcare decision-making. From the fundamentals of a basic model, the course will progress to modelling complex systems, verification and interpreting output, as well as exploring alternative software options. 

When?

Tuesday, 30th November - Thursday, 9th December 2021 (over 6 x half day sessions)

What does the course deliver?

This course aims to provide participants with the skills required to be able to undertake simulation projects to a professional level. It will be both theoretically-based and practically-based, with the use of the Simul8 software package. It will cover the use of discrete-event simulation to assess the impact of alternative options within a local system with resource constraints and the use of patient-level simulation for health economic modelling.

Who will benefit from this course?

This course is primarily for health economic modellers who want to broaden their skill base, as well as healthcare decision-makers who would like to understand more about patient-level simulation and when it might be useful.

Participants must have a basic level of knowledge of health economic modelling in order to follow the course.

Course content:

The course will consist of a mixture of presentations and practical use of Simul8, both following the lecturer and within individual exercises.​

Faculty

Dr Hazel Squires is the current course leader for this ScHARR short course.

Professor Matt Stevenson

Sarah Davis

Dan Pollard

For more information and to book your place, please visit this page

Funded PhD: Systems level modelling in older people/urgent and emergency care with the Health Economics, evaluation and equality theme (HEEE) of the ARC YH

The School of Health related Research, at the University of Sheffield is pleased to advertise a funded PhD opportunity.  The studentship is part of a research programme for the NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (NIHR ARCs). The studentship would be within the Health Economics, Evaluation and Equality (HEEE) cross-cutting theme of the Yorkshire and Humber ARC and will focus on one of the core themes outlined below. 

The Yorkshire & Humber NIHR ARC is a collaboration between NHS, social care, third sector and industry organisations and leading universities in Yorkshire and the Humber. It aims to transform services and improve peoples’ health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities through four strategically important core themes:

·       Early life and Prevention

·       Older people with Frailty

·       Mental and Physical Multimorbidity

·       Urgent and Emergency Care

The HEEE theme aims to work collaboratively with the four core themes and in partnership with local NHS, public health and social care collaborators. This research will focus on improving efficiency and equity in the use of public resources using methods for conducting cross-sector evaluations including mathematical modelling, statistical and econometric methods. The HEEE theme are offering a PhD opportunity and strongly encourage candidates to propose topics in the following areas:

Older Peoples Theme

Develop a system level approach to model the economic arguments of implementing interventions to prevent/improve frailty and delayed transfers of care (DTOC) for older people with complex and heterogeneous needs. The theme will look to simulate the reality of supply side availability and constraints as well as using conventional economic theory to understand the economic incentives and outcomes for patients and stakeholders such as the NHS and Social Services.  

Urgent and Emergency Care Theme

Develop a systems modelling approach to identify and evaluate options for preventing excessive Emergency Departments waiting times. We are particularly interested in developing simulation approaches to examine system level interventions to reduce ED attendances and manage flows through a Department. For example, work may focus on the analysis of options to avoid unnecessary attendances or to avoid delays in transferring patients out of hospital, the design of performance metrics that avoid perverse incentives, or combinations of interventions. The successful applicant will have access to a large routine data set of the ED including arrivals, investigations and treatments in hospitals within the region to help inform the model.

Regent Court, The University of Sheffield

Entry Requirements:

Candidates must:

·       be highly motivated to make a significant scientific contribution in health and social care through research that can inform well-evidenced, cost-effective health strategies

·       have completed an undergraduate degree (equivalent to 2.1 or above) in a relevant discipline (e.g. mathematics, statistics, epidemiology, economics, operational research, systems engineering, management science, physics, systems control).

·       have completed a master’s degree at merit or distinction (or a non-UK equivalent) in a relevant subject, or more than one year of formal employment in a relevant scientific environment

·       have excellent verbal and written communication skills

·       meet English language requirements (international applicants).

Further details:

https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/systems-level-modelling-in-older-people-urgent-and-emergency-care-with-the-health-economics-evaluation-and-equality-theme-heee-of-the-arc-yh/?p134121

How to apply:

Please complete a University Postgraduate Research Application form available here: www.shef.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/apply

Please clearly state the title of the studentship, the prospective main supervisor and select ScHARR as the department.

You will also need to include:

·       a draft outline of your proposed PhD study, in line with the research themes described above, of approximately 500 words

·       a covering letter explaining why you wish to apply for this studentship.

·       a copy of your CV.

Funding Notes

The award will cover academic fees at the UK rate plus a maintenance stipend for 3 years (£15,009 in 2020/21).

Website of the Month for June - Aerialod

Every month we like to highlight a useful website, dataset or app that we think readers of this blog will find useful. This month we deviate from the path a little, following a stream of engaging Tweets by our own Colin Angus. Colin is an alcohol policy modeller in HEDS and has increasingly been expanding his modelling skills portfolio using a set of tools and data to model everything from his alcohol research to places he has climbed. If you follow Colin on Twitter you'll see a stream of eye catching models and visualisations, with many looking at the impact of COVID in various communities up and down the UK. His inspiration to carry out this work came from another Sheffield colleague, Professor Alasdair Rae from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Alasdair wrote a blog article earlier this year that explains how to visualise 3D landscapes and cities using a piece of free software called Aerialod. The original post is below and was published under a Creative Commons licence - many thanks to Alasdair for sharing.

http://www.statsmapsnpix.com/2019/11/amazing-3d-rendering-with-aerialod.html

Making 3D landscape and city models with Aerialod

This is my second post on Aerialod - the interactive path tracing 

renderer for height maps, by @ephtracy. It's available in 32 and 

64-bit versions on Windows and it's super-lightweight but you can

 do some really amazing things with it. My previous post covers 

more of the basics, including controls and interface settings, so 

here I'll share some more information on how to tweak the settings

 (of which there are many) to create nice looking vistas. But as a 

quick reminder, hold down your right mouse button to rotate the 

map and use the space bar plus the left mouse button to move it 

around. Scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Keyboard shortcuts are 

here.

First I'll show you some new visuals I created in Aerialod, then I'll 

show you some of the settings I used to create them - in 

screenshots and in a small slide set. All the images I've posted

below are in a shared folder, as well as a sample Lidar dataset for Cheddar Gorge in England that you can just drop in to Aerialod and

then tweak the settings as you wish. You can of course create these 

kinds of images in other software (notably Blender) but Aerialod

 is much easier to use, though can be confusing at first.
So, let's begin with the highest peaks in Scotland, England and

Wales, plus one other view that I like.

I did this using a 5m DTM (not open data)

See the curved horizon? - that's the SG lens setting

A very nice looking mountain

I've added Glen Etive because it's so lovely

But of course we don't always have to map things like mountains. If we have good quality Lidar data, as we do in much of the UK, we can create quite interesting cityscapes, as you can see below.

Here's a little Salford Sunset to get things rolling

A Newcastle-Gateshead vista, along the Tyne

The example data I've put in the shared folder is of Cheddar Gorge in the south west of England, and it looks like this once you fiddle with a few settings.

Sun low in the sky, dusky effect

I've tweaked some of the settings here to make it glow

Different angle, light filtering through the gorge

A foggier, early morning effect

So how do you do all this?
If you've not used Aerialod before then you'll really need to read my first blog post on it in order to get to grips with the controls, etc. Once you've done this, look closely at the screenshots below as the settings in them show you how I achieved the effects in the four images above. Study them closely and then see further below for a short slide set with more annotation on the settings options in Aerialod.

Take some time to Google some of the different terms and they'll begin to make a lot more sense - e.g. the Rayleigh setting refers to Rayleigh scattering, which relates to the blue colour we see in the sky. So, using the default Rayleigh setting in Aerialod you'll see a blue sky but if you reduce the number to, say 10, it will become more blue and if you put it up to 90, for example, it will look a lot less blue and instead more like a lovely glowing orange/yellow sunset. 

This relates to the first Cheddar Gorge image

This also relates to the first image

Notice the glowing light at the corners here

This is the fourth Cheddar Gorge image above

In addition to reading this, it's a good idea to check out the @ephtracy Twitter account for other tips, plus the #aerialod hashtag on Twitter. There are also now a few good video tutorials online, including this one by Steven Scott.

Here is the small set of slides, with annotated screenshots, that I made in order to help you get to grips with the settings a little better - direct link here.

All this, including the data, can be found in the Aerialod tutorial folder I made for this short blog post. Just drag and drop the .asc file I provided into Aerialod and start playing around.

I've put everything in here

The information above should be all you need to create more realistic, impressive 3D landscape or city models. It all depends of course upon being able to get good quality data at a high resolution - I've provided an example in the folder, but you can get a lot more on the Defra Lidar download page for England. You can use the OpenDem searcher to find suitable data for other parts of the world.

To end, I'm just going to post a few more images that I haven't shared anywhere else before, before a few final comments.

This is done by keeping the 'Map' option on in Grid settings

In the example above, I have all the options on in the Grid settings (Map, Ground, Vertical) and then I have used a value in the 'Step' settings on the right to match the resolution of the underlying data (in this case 5 metres) so that I get a blocky kind of effect - see below.

This works if you want to Minecraft your map

The Western Highlands of Scotland

In the image above, I just used a 1:50,000 Land-Form dataset shared by Carol Blackwood to render the Western Highlands of Scotland - I added the labels using GIMP. You can get the individual tiles as open data from Ordnance Survey as well (OS Terrain 50).

This city is home to two football teams, as you can see here

In the example above, I've just taken some Lidar open data of Liverpool and created a view looking down on Anfield and Goodison - home to Liverpool and Everton respectively. They are very close together and the densely packed terraced housing nearby also makes for an interesting example use case with this kind of data.

And, last but not least, St Kilda - a very wild and remote archipelago off the Western Isles of Scotland that is now a World Heritage Site.

In this example, I've added some fog

Notes: you can add a single file to Aerialod (it can handle PNG, JPG, TIF, IMG and ASC formats) or you can add multiple files at once using the little button on the top right that looks like a folder. That is covered in my previous blog post. If you try to load humongous bytes of data then it may crash. Sometimes it won't crash but just won't load. Generally I find it just works and the Scotland 1:50,000 terrain model above is over 600MB and worked fine for me. Just remember that when you hover over any of the tools in Aerialod you will get information on what it is and what it does at the bottom of the window. 

Citation: Blackwood, Carol. (2017). Scotland Land-Form PANORAMA® DTM, [Dataset]. EDINA. https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/1929.

New short course - Advanced Simulation Methods - 3 day course: Tuesday, 13th - Thursday, 15th October 2020

Advanced Simulation Methods

3 day course:  Tuesday, 13th - Thursday, 15th October 2020

Background

Dt Hazel Squires

Within healthcare decision-making, cohort Markov models and decision trees are frequently used. However, in some situations these are not the most appropriate modelling methods. This course provides an in-depth review of individual-level simulation rationale, techniques and methodologies with a particular focus on discrete event simulation and its practical application to inform healthcare decision-making. From the fundamentals of a basic model the course will progress to modelling complex systems, verification and interpreting output, as well as exploring alternative software options.

What does the course deliver?

This course aims to provide participants with the skills required to be able to undertake simulation projects to a professional level. It will be both theoretically-based and practically-based, with the use of the Simul8 software package. It will cover the use of discrete-event simulation to assess the impact of alternative options within a local system with resource constraints and the use of patient-level simulation for health economic modelling.

Professor
Matt Stevenson

Who will benefit from this course?

This course is primarily for health economic modellers who want to broaden their skill base, as well as healthcare decision makers who would like to understand more about patient-level simulation and when it might be useful.

Participants must have a basic level of knowledge of health economic modelling in order to follow the course.

Course content

The course will consist of a mixture of presentations and practical use of Simul8, both following the lecturer and within individual exercises.

Course Materials

Course Materials will be provided via a Delegate Course Website approximately 1 week prior to the course start date. Hard copies of exercises will be provided throughout the course as necessary.  Hard copies of PowerPoint presentations will not be provided, but these can be printed by delegates before the start of the course via the Delegate Course Website.

Dr Sarah Davis

Participants are asked to provide their own laptop for the duration of the course.

Instructions for downloading the course software, Simul8, will be provided prior to the start of the course.

NB:  MAC's are not compatible, so will not be suitable for this course.  If you cannot provide your own (non MAC) laptop, please contact Karen Holden at scharr-scu@sheffield.ac.uk, to discuss alternative arrangements.

Course Faculty 

Hazel Squires, is the current course leader for this 3 day ScHARR short course.

Matt Stevenson

Sarah Davis

Dates

3 day course: Tuesday, 13th - Thursday, 15th October 2020

Times

Day 1 - 09:00 - 17:00, with a course evening dinner at approximately 7pm.

Day 2 - 09:15 - 17:15

Day 3 - 09:15 - 14:45

Fees

£999 - Early Bird Rate - For confirmed bookings received on or before 11pm on Thursday, 13th August 2020.

£1099 - Standard Rate - for confirmed bookings received on or before 11pm on Tuesday, 29th September 2020.

We also offer a 20% discount for group bookings of 4 or more people on the same course. Please contact Karen Holden at scharr-scu@sheffield.ac.uk to book. NB: This discount cannot be applied at checkout or after a booking has taken place through the Online Store, all group bookings should go directly to Karen Holden at scharr-scu@sheffield.ac.uk.

£499 - for Eligible ScHARR Staff/ScHARR Students Only. This is a reduced fee for our current ScHARR Staff, and/or current ScHARR Students where fees are paid either directly by the delegate, or directly by ScHARR e.g. nor from external funding either directly or indirectly. Eligibility will need to be confirmed prior to booking. Please contact Karen Holden at scharr-scu@sheffield.ac.uk, to confirm your eligibility and obtain the password required to make this booking.

Booking and Payment

This course is live on our Online Store, and currently taking bookings.

All of our ScHARR short course booking are initially processed via our Online Store. Payment is by Credit/Debit Card or PayPal and via Invoice (purchase order required) if required.

If your employer is paying your fees, and they would prefer to be invoiced, please ensure you have your Purchase Order details before making your booking and select the Invoice Option at the start of the booking process.  Bookings are NOT confirmed until receipt of the Purchase Order is received at scharr-scu@sheffield.ac.uk.

If you have any queries regarding booking or payment, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Venue

Halifax Hall Hotel and Conference Centre.

Endcliffe Vale Rd, Sheffield, S10 3ER.

Tel:  +44 (0)114 222 8810

http://www.halifaxhall.co.uk/

Accommodation and Meals

Refreshments and lunch will be provided throughout the 3 days of this course.  Plus, a course evening dinner is included that will take place on the evening of Day 1.

Fees do not include accommodation. However, we do have a preferential rate at Halifax Hall for our delegates (subject to availability), of £70 per room/night. Or a rate of £50 per night at our new Jonas Hotel, situated behind Halifax Hall.

Booking details and contact information for booking accommodation, will be automatically provided upon receipt of your online booking.  A booking reference will be given along with the name and contact details of how the accommodation should be booked to ensure you receive our preferential rates and ease of cancellation.

NB:  If you book through a third party e.g. Booking.com etc, then you will be bound by their terms and conditions including cancellation policy, and therefore we cannot guarantee a full refund in the event that the course is cancelled.

Contact

For further information please do not hesitate to contact us via email at scharr-scu@sheffield.ac.uk

or call +44 (0)114 222 2968.

Tushar Srivastava receives NIHR pre-doctoral research award to look at methodological issues around statistics and health economic modelling

Tushar Srivastava

Our very own Tushar Srivastava has been successful in the recent round of the prestigious NIHR Fellowship Programme and offered an NIHR pre-doctoral research award. Winning this award provides an immense and great opportunity for training and development for Tushar and will give him the means to up-skill in his research area. Through this award, Tushar plans to focus on methodological issues around statistics and health economic modelling. 

In particular, he wishes to explore the following two topic areas: current methodologies for estimating transition probabilities (TPs) in state transition models and the potential role of causal inference (CI) in this context. CI methods estimate causal effects in the presence of confounding and could be useful when TPs are estimated from data which are prone to confounding e.g. from observational data or post-randomisation RCT data. 

Dr Nick Latimer and Prof. Paul Tappenden will be Tushar's supervisor during the award period.

YCR CONNECTS – Cancer Research Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship

YCR CONNECTS – Cancer Research Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship

Health Economics, Mathematical Modelling, Medical Statistics, Medical Physics.

University of Sheffield, School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR)

Cancer Research Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship supported by Yorkshire Cancer Research

Job Reference Number: UOS022795

Contract Type: Fixed-term for 5 years

Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship, Grade 8/9£40,792 to £58,089 per annum

Closing Date: 01 July 2019

For an informal discussion about the posts, please contact Professor
Jim Chilcott - j.b.chilcott@sheffield.ac.uk or Dr Paul Tappenden -
p.tappenden@sheffield.ac.uk  at ScHARR.

Summary: An exciting opportunity to become one of tomorrow's Cancer 
Research Leaders. We wish to attract high quality candidates to take up 
senior non-clinical research fellowships (working in linked areas of 
applied clinical science for example; health economics, mathematical 
modelling, medical statistics) to create a strong clinical and 
translational research base that can deliver tangible improvements in 
cancer outcomes for patients in South Yorkshire and beyond.

Appointees should focus on clinical and translational aspects of cancer 
research within the following priority themes that align closely with 
the Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR) research strategy:

   * Early diagnosis and access to treatment
   * Improving clinical outcomes in common malignancies
   * Improved health and wellbeing with and beyond cancer
   * Lung cancer

These new appointments will link with the University of Sheffield (UoS) 
Research Centres, thereby providing a connected research infrastructure 
with the dual aims of reducing cancer mortality and improving the 
experience of living with or after a cancer diagnosis. Each appointee 
will receive a generous start-up package to enable rapid initiation of 
internationally competitive research. You can view details of how to 
apply at
https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BSP590/ycr-connects-senior-non-clinical-fellowships.

HEDS modellers become first non-US contributors to an ICER review

Dr Praveen Thokala

Dr Praveen Thokala and Professor Matt Stevenson recently provided economic modelling expertise for an Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) assessment on spinal muscular atrophy.  ICER, which was founded in 2006, is a not-for-profit organisation that evaluates the clinical and economic value of prescription drugs, medical tests and other health care delivery systems and effectively acts as an independent “watchdog” on drug pricing in the USA.

Professor Matt Stevenson

Each completed ICER assessment establishes a “value-based price benchmark” recommending  an optimal price point to reflect its long term outcomes for patients.  These recommendations are increasingly used to inform decisions by health insurance companies in the USA as well as Medicare in New York state and    retail pharmacist CVS, and have also been used by drug makers to help determine launch prices or the degree of discounts that will be offered.

ICER conducts its own in-house assessment of the clinical effectiveness of new drugs but commissions universities to create models of cost-effectiveness on which its price recommendations are based.  ScHARR is the first non-US institution to be commissioned to do this work.

The report, which assesses the comparative clinical effectiveness of Spinraza and Zolgensma in the treatment if SMA, is available (along with slides from Prof. Stevenson’s presentation) at: https://icer-review.org/topic/sma.