Biostatistician/Statistical Programmer

Name (Company): 

Emma McEntee (PAREXEL)

Current role:

Biostatistician II

Years of relevant experience:

1 year industry placement as part of BSc

4 year industry experience post MSc

Emma M

Career path to date:

I studied BSc Mathematics at University of Greenwich with an industrial placement in 2012, so I graduated in 2013. I studied MSc Medical Statistics at London School of Tropical Medicine and graduated in 2015.

I am currently working as a Biostatistician II at PAREXEL, after finding my job on LinkedIn. I have been at the company for nearly 2 years, after working for a smaller CRO for the first 2 years after graduating from my MSc. As part of my role I am currently the lead biostatistician on 2 clinical studies.

In 5 years’ time, I hope to be considered a senior statistician leading more clinical studies and being considered a statistical expert so I can provide input into more complex statistical issues.

A typical day at work:

A typical working day involves attending meetings, sending emails (internal and clients) and overseeing the biostatistics and programming activities on my studies.

My degree is very relevant to my job. Most pharmaceutical companies & CROs require at least a MSc in Statistics to work as a statistician. I chose to specialise in Medical Statistics as I knew I wanted to work in the pharmaceutical industry after completing my industrial placement year so this gave me specialist training in statistics used in this industry.

The best part of the role:

I enjoy knowing that the work I am doing will hopefully one day make a difference in someone’s life by helping get a drug to market.

Sometimes, as part of my role I can be faced with some interesting challenges… A client can request complex statistical analyses to be performed that I may not yet have experience with, so I have to do research and look into methodologies so I can deliver this to the client. Also working in a mutli-functional team, not everyone is familiar with understanding statistics so part of my job is coaching others and interpreting the results of any statistical analyses in a way that is understandable to those without any statistics knowledge.

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Joint PSI/EFSPI Visualisation SIG 'Wonderful Wednesday' Webinars

Our monthly webinar explores examples of innovative data visualisations relevant to our day to day work. Each month a new dataset is provided from a clinical trial or other relevant example, and participants are invited to submit a graphic that communicates interesting and relevant characteristics of the data.

PSI Webinar: Drug Development in Women's Health

The event will open with an overview on drug development in women’s health from a clinician perspective. This talk is followed by talks about statistical challenges when planning IVF studies and analysing the menstrual cycles.

PSI Webinar: Surrogacy

This webinar will provide an overview of surrogacy for licensing and reimbursement. In turn, the need of extensions of the SPIRIT and CONSORT statement will be defined and outlined, with case studies to support.

Joint PSI/EFSPI Pre-Clinical SIG Webinar: Virtual Control Groups in Toxicity Studies

Lea Vaas will present how replacement of concurrent control animals by Virtual Control Groups (VCGs) in systemic toxicity studies may help in contributing to the 3R's principle of animal experimentation: Reduce, Refine, Replace.

Joint PSI/EFSPI Data Science SIG Webinar: Developing Digital Measures (Digital Biomarkers) in Drug Development – insights from Mobilise D consortium

We will share a brief overview of what Mobilise D is and why it is an important step stone in the development of digital biomarkers, and how Mobilise D outputs can be relevant for you.

PSI Career Young Virtual Event (Q2 2024)

This networking event is aimed at statisticians that are new to the pharmaceutical industry who wish to meet colleagues from different companies and backgrounds.

PSI Webinar: Development of Gene Therapies: Strategic, Scientific, Regulatory and Access Considerations

This webinar will cover the history of cell/gene therapy, major regulatory advances, the role of quantitative scientists in drug development of these novel therapeutics, and discuss opportunities for innovation and product advancement.

PSI Career Young Virtual Event (Q3 2024)

This networking event is aimed at statisticians that are new to the pharmaceutical industry who wish to meet colleagues from different companies and backgrounds.

PSI Introduction to Industry Training (ITIT) Course - 2024/2025

An introductory course giving an overview of the pharmaceutical industry and the drug development process as a whole, aimed at those with 1-3 years' experience. It comprises of six 2-day sessions covering a range of topics including Research and Development, Toxicology, Data Management and the Role of a CRO, Clinical Trials, Reimbursement, and Marketing.

PSI Career Young Virtual Event (Q4 2024)

This networking event is aimed at statisticians that are new to the pharmaceutical industry who wish to meet colleagues from different companies and backgrounds.

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