McMaster University’s Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CE&B) students hosted the Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics National Student Conference (CSEB) this past weekend.

The CSEB National Student conference is an annual event that aims to provide students an opportunity for presenting their research, networking, and professional development. It also offers an opportunity for publication of their research. The top 25 presenters have been offered publication of their conference abstracts in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, and in Health Sciences Inquiry. Over 200 delegates from across the country attended the event on Friday May 9 and Saturday May 10.

On Friday May 9, students attended workshops given by the following speakers: Dr. Mitch Levine and Bernice Tsoi (“A primer on health technology assessment: From basic concepts to model building in health economic evaluations”), Dr. Lorne Rothman (“An Introduction to Survival Analysis in SAS”), Dr. Joseph Beyene (“Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies: Challenges and Opportunities in Research Synthesis”), and Dr. Michael Wilson and Kaelan Moat (“Knowledge translation: Finding and Using Research Evidence to Inform Decision-making about Health Systems”). Students also attended a career panel featuring Dr. Mark Oremus, Dr. Jean-Eric Tarride, and Dr. Carolee Carson, representing the fields of academia, industry, and government, respectively. Keynote speaker Dr. Gordon Guyatt, Canada’s Health Researcher of the Year 2013, presented to students the history of evidence-medicine.

Student presentations occurred on May 10. Prizes were awarded to the top three poster and top three oral presenters at the conference. McMaster CE&B MSc student Kevin Quach won the first place prize for poster presentations, and McMaster CE&B PhD student Lawrence Mbuagbaw won the second place prize for oral presentations.

This year’s planning committee consisted of Vanja Gavranic, Sohail Mulla, Zahra Sohani, Bernice Tsoi, Abha Athale, Thuva Vanniyasingam, Elena Tsangaris, Kevin Quach, Arnav Agarwal, Ayesha Rana, Rebecca Jeffery, Alex Ratzki-Leewing, and Stacey Guy. Dr. Lehana Thabane served as the faculty advisor to this committee, and Thy Dinh served as the CSEB advisor to this committee.