Professor Val Gebski joined the CTC in 1988. He has extensive knowledge of clinical trial methodology, conduct and analysis, and is the group statistician for a number of national collaborative clinical trials groups in oncology. He also has extensive experience in designing and conducting meta-analyses as well as involvement in developing terms of reference for independent data safety and monitoring committees (IDSMC), participating in (including chairing) international IDSMCs, and preparing reports for these bodies. He has also been an expert witness in a number of medico legal court trials.

Val has a BA and MStat and is an honorary Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists. He is Co-Director of the University of Sydney Masters of Clinical Trials (Research) being conducted from the CTC. He is involved in the “SMART” programme for trainees from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists, and contributes to the critical appraisal component of the Basic Sciences in Oncology program run through NSW Ministry of Health.

Research interests

• Methods for clinical trials design
• Competing risks in studies with time-to-event outcomes
• Study designs examining the impact of biomarkers
• Novel statistical methods for clinical trials analysis

Particular expertise/experience

• Independent Data Safety and Monitoring Committee (IDSMC)
  
  • Developing Terms of Reference for establishing IDSMC’s
  • Serving as Committee member &/or chairing
  • Conducting courses for potential IDSMC members
  • Developing process for establishing IDSMC
• Expert witness in legal cases
  • Advising legal experts on scientific/statistical aspects of disputes
  • Experience in cross-examination (one-on-one and ‘hot tub’)
  • Writing of expert reports with respect to statistical/methodological issues
• Advice on appropriate clinical study designs and statistical methods including early stopping rules (futility/benefit)
• Interpretation of study results
• Advice on design analysis and interpretation of equivalence and non-inferiority (NI) studies including choice of NI margins
• Design and analysis of time-to-event studies particularly with multiple/recurrent events
• Expertise in quality of life (QoL) methods
  • Time in good QoL
  • Trade-offs between QoL and clinical benefit(s)
• Analysis of toxicity including events with ordinal outcomes

Publications

View Val's publications.