9th Fisher/Shafer NONMEM/PLT Tools Workshop
Dear Colleagues:
I am happy to announce the 9th Fisher / Shafer NONMEM Workshop, which will
be held in Bethesda, Maryland from Wednesday, May 6th, through Sunday, May
10th. You can see the course description and registration details at
www.nonmemcourse.com.
Our NONMEM Workshops are now in their 5th year. Dennis Fisher and I have
spent the past two years developing PLT Tools, which has now completed its
first year of testing. For the 9th Fisher/Shafer NONMEM course we have
completed converted from the R scripts and Windows batch commands offered in
our previous courses to the substantially more capable PLT Tools platform.
You can download the completely functional non-licensed version of PLT Tools
from www.pltsoft.com. Even if you don't install it, you should look at the
user interface. Model validation is facilitated with automated procedures
for visual predictive checks, log likelihood profiling, jack-knife analysis,
and extensive bootstrap analysis for determination of standard errors. We
are also including a robust library of control streams and a control stream
editor. CFR 11 Part 22 compliance is built into the program, as is extensive
run archiving and creation of audit trails. PLT Tools also includes a
comprehensive set of graphical and statistical analyses facilitate model
development and testing. A sample output can be downloaded from
www.pltsoft.com. The licensed version of PLT Tools supports distributing
NONMEM processing across networked computers.
One of the joys of teaching this course is the considerable evolution in
course material every time the workshop is offered. Dennis and I continuous
update the course materials, based both on feedback from course participants
and our own exploration of novel pharmacometric problems. Now that we have
converted our own work entirely to the PLT Tools platform, we think course
participants will similarly benefit from a simple interface that provides
outstanding diagnostic graphics, and automates advanced tasks including VPC,
LL profiles, and bootstrap analysis.
We hope to see you in Bethesda!
Sincerely,
Steven L. Shafer, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology, Columbia University
Adjunct Professor of Anesthesia, Stanford University
Adjunct Professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, UCSF
Editor-in-Chief, Anesthesia & Analgesia