Hong Zhu, PhD
A new book co-authored by Hong Zhu, PhD, a professor of biostatistics in the Department of Public Health Sciences, addresses an unmet need for guidance texts on sample size and power analysis for pragmatic cluster randomized trials (PCTs), assisting practitioners in clinical trial design.
Design and Analysis of Pragmatic Trials was published in May by Chapman & Hall and co-authored with Song Zhang, PhD, a professor of biostatistics and Chul Ahn, PhD, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Pragmatic clinical trials are widely employed to evaluate whether an intervention works in real-world routine practice settings. The book discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each type of PCTs (simple, matched-pair, stratified, stepped-wedge, longitudinal, crossover cluster randomized designs), provides sample size formulas that address various pragmatic issues (e.g., hierarchical correlations, missing data, varying cluster sizes, etc.), and facilitates the proper implementation of PCTs to improve healthcare. It can also be used as a textbook for biostatistics graduate students to enhance their knowledge in trial design.
Dr. Zhu is also Director of UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Biostatistics Shared Resource (BSR), which supports UVACCC investigators in the design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of basic, clinical, translational, and population science studies.
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