Monash University
About the Webinar
Cluster randomized trials are essential tools for evaluating the impact of interventions delivered to all individuals within groups, or “clusters,” such as hospitals. Stepped wedge designs are an increasingly popular variant of standard cluster randomized trials that allow the intervention to be rolled out across all participating clusters in a randomized manner. These designs are appealing and potentially powerful, but they can be prohibitively burdensome because they require clusters to collect and provide data in all trial periods. A staircase design is a less burdensome alternative to the stepped wedge that requires only limited involvement from each cluster. The design resembles a staircase: Clusters are randomly assigned to sequences made up of a limited number of measurement periods (control followed by intervention), in which sequences start measurement at different times.
In this talk, Dr. Grantham provides insights into the efficiency and potential benefits of staircase designs to build a deeper understanding of these designs and inform design choice. Dr. Grantham covers when staircase designs are an efficient alternative to the stepped wedge and presents results on how the efficiency of different staircase design variants depends on the trial setting and design configuration, including which variants are most efficient in different settings.
About Kelsey Grantham
Dr. Kelsey Grantham is a Research Fellow in biostatistics at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. With a background in mathematics and applied statistics, and after working as a mathematical modeler of disease epidemics, she commenced a Ph.D. at Monash focused on developing statistical methodology for cluster randomized trials. While pursuing her Ph.D., she developed new, more realistic statistical methods and more efficient trial designs that have helped ensure cluster randomized trials draw valid and precise conclusions about the impact of new interventions. Her Ph.D. was awarded in 2021, and she received the Damien Jolley Award for an outstanding doctoral thesis. As a postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr. Grantham leads research on efficient and less burdensome cluster randomized trial designs, with a focus on staircase designs, and directs the statistical aspects of applied studies at Monash.