Known for its medieval cathedral, Aachen's predominant economic focus in the 21st century is on science, engineering, information technology and related sectors.
Professor William Rosenberger received a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to Aachen, Germany, in fall 2014 to pursue his research on randomization. While there, he conducted collaborative research at the RWTH University of Aachen Medical School. He also finished the 2nd edition of his book, Randomization in Clinical Trials: Theory and Practice. He will teach two courses using the book in spring 2016: STAT 560 and STAT 760.
Rosenberger, a University Professor, serves as Chairman of the Department of Statistics at the Volgenau School of Engineering. He has been cited for his theoretical contributions to statistics in the areas of experimental design and sequential analysis that have been recognized locally,
[William Rosenberger, PhD] nationally, and internationally. The Fulbright award created an opportunity for him to extend this work and team up with others.
The faculty at RWTH Aachen are involved in a €3 million grant from the European Union on methodology for clinical trials of rare diseases. Rosenberger collaborated with them on problems involving the use of randomization in very small clinical trials.
Clinical trials explore whether a medical strategy, treatment, or device is safe and effective for humans and may show which medical approaches work best for certain illnesses or groups of people. Statistical studies play an important part in clinical trials by allowing researchers to form reasonable and accurate inferences from collected information and make sound decisions in the presence of uncertainty.
"Some of the diseases are so rare there is no cure," said Rosenberger. "The statistical methodology for a disease with as few as 50 cases in the world is much different than that of a more prevalent disease."
Despite such small numbers Rosenberger believes there are compelling reasons to study these diseases. "About 6,000 to 8,000 rare diseases affect 30 million people in the European Union and about 50 percent of these people are children," he said.
Because many of the diseases are life threatening and alternative therapies may not exist, there may be ethical imperatives to maximize the number of patients receiving experimental therapies.
Fulbright scholarships to Germany are increasingly rare; only seven were funded in 2015. Funding a Fulbright to do research in statistics is even more rare, but Rosenberger's work is unique, and the Medical University at Aachen is one of the few places that studies randomization methodology.
Faculty and doctoral students from Aachen will be visiting Mason this fall and spring to continue the research with Rosenberger. "The ongoing collaboration should lead to developments that could have a major impact on the public health in both the U.S. and Europe."