Three-day Online-course | International Summer School
Prognosis research in healthcare: concepts, methods and impact
Date: 9 July - 11 July 2025
Location: Online
Cost: £645
Course leaders: Professor Danielle van der Windt (Keele University), Professor Richard Riley (University of Birmingham)
As increasing numbers of people worldwide live with one or more health problems, the study of prognosis has never been more important. Prognosis research provides information crucial to understanding, explaining and predicting future clinical outcomes in people with existing disease or health conditions. It provides pivotal evidence to inform outcome prediction, clinical decision making, design and evaluation of stratified medicine (stratified care), and all stages of translational research from molecular biology to health policy.
Course overview
This 3-day online summer school is designed to introduce the key components and uses of prognosis research to health professionals and researchers, including:
- a framework of four different prognosis research questions: overall prognosis, prognostic factors, prognostic models, and stratified medicine
- key principles of study design and methods
- interpretation of statistical results about prognosis
- the use of prognosis research evidence at multiple stages on the translational pathway toward improving patient outcome
- the limitations of current prognosis research, and how the field can be improved
The course will take place online, and consists of lectures from a core faculty of epidemiologists, statisticians and clinical researchers, alongside group work and discussion sessions.
Please note that no computer practicals are included with the focus instead on interpretation of statistical concepts and results of analyses.
Basic knowledge of epidemiology and statistics is assumed. The course is founded on the prognosis research framework introduced by the PROGRESS partnership, described in a series of 4 articles published in BMJ/PLoS Medicine in February 2013.
The course is hosted by the Keele University and is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).