Submitted by A.S. Quenault on Fri, 02/08/2024 - 12:51
Congratulations to BSU PhD student, Bethany Heath, on receiving a grant award to present at the International Biometric Conference.
Bethany has received one of six travel grants from the International Biometric Society (IBS) British and Irish Region for career-young biostatisticians to participate at the International Biometric Conference. The conference is taking place in Atlanta in December 2024 where Bethany will be giving a talk on her work on evaluating testing policies for epidemic management particularly focusing on the use of pooled testing.
Testing policies are an essential tool when designing a strategic, coordinated response to an epidemic such as COVID-19. A crucial aspect to consider both when designing and implementing a testing strategy as an intervention is the number of tests available. Given a limited testing capacity, pooled testing (a method that involves pooling samples taken from multiple individuals and analysing this with a single diagnostic test) has been suggested to reduce the average number of tests needed to identify infected individuals. Despite this, pooled testing was rarely used during the COVID-19 pandemic due to uncertainty over dilution effects of pooled testing and unfamiliarity of how pooled testing can best be used. Bethany's work bridges this gap by 1) evaluating the impact that pooled testing could have had on disease management including the interplay with other non-pharmaceutical measures, 2) understanding the conditions in the population (such as compliance) and disease dynamics that best suit pooled testing, and 3) designing new pooled testing policies fit for purpose for the contexts studied.
Bathany said:
I am pleased and very grateful to the IBS British and Irish Region for granting me funds to present my work at the International Biometric Conference in Atlanta. I am very much looking forward to sharing my research with other academics at the conference.