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 and the Academic & Education office. 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 questions).

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

Clinical & Safety Assessments

Drug utilisation

Drug-utilisation comparisons across health systems
Safety signals

Multi-country drug-safety signal assessment

Methodological Robustness

Validation

Cross-national validation studies in different healthcare settings
Distributed network

Studies run on a common data model

Strategic Impact & Targeted Populations

Vulnerable populations

Pregnancy, paediatric, older-adult and other vulnerable population safety where Asian databases are under-represented
Regulatory and 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 or ACPE 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 and a recommendation from a current AsPEN member (both required for AsPEN membership).

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 ISPE.
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

Cohort and trial emulation

Active Comparator / New User
Target Trial Emulation
Sequential Trial Emulation

Self-controlled

Prescription Sequence Symmetry Analysis (PSSA)
Self-Controlled Case Series (SCCS)
Case-Crossover (CCO)
Case-Time-Control (CTC)
Case-Case-Time-Control (CCTC)

Quasi-experimental

Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD)
Difference-in-Differences (DID)
Instrumental Variable (IV)
Trend-in-Trend (TIT)
Proximal Causal Inference

Trajectory

Group-based trajectory modeling

Confounding control

Propensity Score Matching / IPTW
Clone-Censor-Weight (CCW)
Machine-learning–based confounding adjustment (Causal Forest, TMLE, Doubly Robust)

Data infrastructure

Common Data Models (CDM)

FAQ

+ Do I need to be an ISPE member?

Yes. AsPEN is an ISPE Special Interest Group, and ISPE membership is required to join AsPEN and to present proposals at SIG meetings, together with a recommendation from a current AsPEN member. An informal first conversation about an idea is still welcome from anyone.

+ Do I need my own database access?

Not necessarily. For academic investigators, access to a database at your home institution helps us assess feasibility and study design realistically up-front. But it is not a strict requirement: a large part of AsPEN's work is educational, and we are glad to help researchers in more countries build pharmacoepidemiology capacity. For industry partners, regulators, and clinicians without database access, 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?

This needs to be discussed with the network first, and each proposal is considered case by case. Please contact the AsPEN Academic & Education office and 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.