PLEASE NOTE NEW DATE FOR THIS MEETING

3.00 pm Guest speaker: Rik van Eekelen, PhD Candidate, Centre for Reproductive Medicine, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam

The Cox proportional hazards model for treatment effects in observational data: possibilities and pitfalls

Couples who are unable to conceive after twelve months of trying, and in whom no barriers to conception can be found, are said to have unexplained subfertility. It remains uncertain if these couples should receive in vitro fertilisation (IVF). We compared one cohort that followed couples from their first IVF cycle to two cohorts that followed couples who continued trying to conceive naturally.

Three methodological and statistical issues arose during analysis. First, we may ask ourselves: what is the epidemiological framework of the research we are conducting? Could it be considered prediction of a counterfactual? Second, the treatment effect was non-proportional over time. If the event probabilities for both groups are of primary interest, what are our options? Third, we had concerns that the three cohorts were not comparable due to possible selection bias. We showcase the nature of this issue in data on insemination treatment.

Please the agenda for the AGM to follow.:

4.00 pm AGM

Apologies
Agree ‘minutes’ of previous year
Activities of previous year
Financial Report
Election of committee & office bearers
Proposed future meetings
Council member nominations for 2020-2023
RSS Conference 2022
AOB
Council member nominations for 2020-2023
RSS Conference 2022
AOB