SKM 2023 – scientific programme
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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme
SOE 20: Networks: From Topology to Dynamics IV (joint session DY/SOE)
SOE 20.6: Talk
Friday, March 31, 2023, 11:00–11:15, ZEU 250
Network meta-analysis: A statistical physics perpective — Annabel L. Davies1 and •Tobias Galla2 — 1Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PS, UK — 2IFISC, Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos (CSIC-UIB), Campus Universitat de les Illes Balears, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Network meta-analysis (NMA) is a technique used in medical statis- tics to combine evidence from multiple medical trials. In particular it allows one to compare treatments that have not been tested directly against each other in a trial. NMA defines an inference and information processing problem on a network of treatment options and trials connecting the treatments. In this talk I will briefly outline the `NMA problem', and I will then describe how statistical physics can offer useful ideas and tools for this area, including from the theory of complex networks, stochastic modelling and simulation techniques [1]. In particular I will present an analogy we recently established between NMA and random walks on networks [2], and which improves existing algorithms for the estimation of `proportion contributions' -- that is the importance of any one element in the network for the comparison of any two given treatment options. One main aim of the talk is to attract physicists to this timely, interesting and worthwhile area of research.
[1] Annabel L Davies and Tobias Galla, J. Stat. Mech. (2022) 11R001
[2] Annabel L Davies, Theodoros Papakonstantinou, Adriani Nikolakopoulou, Gerta Rücker, Tobias Galla, Statistics in Medicine, 41 (2022) 2091