The March seminar of the Center for Quantitative Methods and Data Sciences (QM&DS), in partnership with the Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) Center at Tufts CTSI and the Data-Intensive Studies Center (DISC) at Tufts University, will occur on DATE via Zoom. The topic of this month's webinar is "Nuts and Bolts of Meta-analysis"

There is tremendous interest in advancing ‘personalized' or ‘precision' medicine — the idea that one can tailor more effective health interventions to an individual’s unique genetic, physiological, behavioral and exposure profile. Although there have been major success stories in personalized medicine, particularly in cancer treatment settings, testing personalized interventions requires non-traditional study designs such as N-of-1 (single subject) and aggregated N-of-1 studies. Dr. Schork describes the principals behind N-of-1 trials as well as strategies for pursuing them in comprehensive and efficient ways. In particular, he describes study designs that consider the effect of individual components making up a multiple component intervention, the sequential analysis of aggregated N-of-1 trials, ’systems physiology’ studies of intervention effects in individuals, and the broad use of guided smart phone apps to optimize mental health interventions for individuals.