Contact

Get in touch

For study proposals, collaboration discussions, and general inquiries — please reach out to the AsPEN Chair and the Academic & Education office.

Chair · Academic & Education office

Inquiries are routed to the AsPEN Chair (Ju-Young Shin, SKKU · SNU) and the Academic & Education office (Daniel Tsai, NCKU; Edward Lai, NCKU). Please include your name, affiliation, and a brief note of what you'd like to discuss — a study idea, a potential collaboration, joining the network, or any other question.

Email AsPEN

Propose a study to AsPEN

How a multi-country pharmacoepidemiology study takes shape through AsPEN.

AsPEN provides one coordinated channel across 20+ population-level databases in Asia-Pacific and partner sites in the UK, US, and Europe. The network's standing methodological expertise covers signal-detection, drug utilisation, and effectiveness or safety comparison.

What fits well

Drug-utilisation comparisons across health systems
Multi-country drug-safety signal assessment
Cross-national validation studies in different healthcare settings
Pregnancy / paediatric / older-adult / other vulnerable population safety where Asian databases are under-represented
Distributed network (common data model)
Regulatory or policy questions where cross-jurisdiction evidence supports decision-making

The proposal process

1

Pre-discussion

1–3 wks

Send a 2–3 sentence question by email; the Academic & Education office identifies relevant national leads.
2

Concept note

2–4 wks

1–2 page concept (question, population, exposure, outcome, candidate sites, lead author) submitted by email.
3

Network review

1–3 mo

Concept circulated at the next SIG teleconference or ISPE Asian / ICPE meeting; interested sites signal willingness.
4

Protocol drafting

3–6 mo

Participating sites finalise common data definitions, statistical analysis plan, and feasibility checks.
5

Local IRB & analysis

6–12 mo

Each site obtains IRB approval, executes locally, and returns site-level estimates.
6

Meta-analysis & publication

3–6 mo

Site-level results pooled centrally; manuscript drafted under AsPEN multi-site authorship conventions.

Concept to publication typically runs 18–30 months; site recruitment and IRB approval are the most variable steps.

What you bring

A clearly-scoped research question and draft analysis plan.
Willingness to lead protocol drafting and meta-analysis.
Database access at your home institution (see FAQ for who this applies to).
ISPE membership if formally joining the SIG.

What AsPEN provides

Site recruitment across the network — one channel, many databases.
Methodological consultation across the toolkit listed below.
Protocol review at SIG meetings and ICPE.
Multi-site authorship and publication coordination.

Methods we apply

AsPEN studies draw on a broad design and analytic toolkit chosen to fit the question, the available data, and the multi-country setting.

Study design: Active Comparator / New User · Target Trial Emulation · Sequential Trial Emulation
Quasi-experimental: Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) · Difference-in-Differences (DID) · Instrumental Variable (IV) · Trend-in-Trend (TIT) · Proximal Causal Inference
Self-controlled / signal detection: Prescription Sequence Symmetry Analysis (PSSA) · Self-Controlled Case Series (SCCS)
Confounding control: Propensity Score Matching / IPTW · Clone-Censor-Weight (CCW) · Machine-learning–based confounding adjustment (Causal Forest, TMLE, Doubly Robust)
Trajectory & data infrastructure: Group-based trajectory modeling · Common Data Models (CDM)

FAQ

+ Do I need to be an ISPE member to propose?

No. Informal pre-discussion is open to anyone. To formally join the SIG and present proposals at SIG meetings, ISPE membership (including student rates) is required.

+ Do I need my own database access?

For academic investigators, yes — access to a database at your home institution lets us assess feasibility and study design realistically up-front. For industry partners, regulators, and clinicians without database access, this is not required; AsPEN sites can host the analysis on your behalf.

+ Is there any cost?

AsPEN does not charge for participation. Site-level costs are limited to data access (which varies by database) and the human resources required to execute the local analysis.

+ What if my study is industry-funded?

Very welcome. Discussion is coordinated through the AsPEN Academic & Education office — please outline the research question, the analytical scope, and the AsPEN sites you would like to involve.

+ Can I propose a methods-only study?

Yes — methodological work is a long-standing AsPEN strand. See the Methods we apply section above for the design and analytic toolkit currently in use across the network.