11th Fisher/Shafer NONMEM/PLT Tools Workshop

Dear Colleagues: Dennis Fisher and I are delighted to announce our 11th NONMEM /PLT Tools Workshop, which will be held in San Francisco from April 13th through April 17th, 2010. You can find the course description and registration details at http://www.nonmemcourse.com www.nonmemcourse.com. San Francisco is our most popular course, so early booking is recommended. This is an intermediate to advanced course on the use of the NONMEM system, closely integrated with the PLT Tools graphical user interface for the NONMEM System. Although the focus of the workshop is NONMEM, the more advanced diagnostics (e.g., visual predictive check, log-likelihood profiling, bootstrap analysis, and jackknife validation) are presented in the context of PLT Tools because it automates the generation of these diagnostics. Dennis and I are particularly pleased to use this workshop to introduce a new feature of PLT Tools: automatic covariate identification. A set of routines built into PLT Tools permit automated exploration of the relationship between covariates and model parameters by creating NONMEM control files that systematically evaluate the matrix of model parameters and patient covariates. The workshop will be based on NONMEM VI. With the imminent release of NONMEM 7 by Globomax, Dennis and I have worked hard to see that PLT Tools is compatible with NONMEM 7. If you are using NONMEM 7, or intend to switch to NONMEM 7, the version of PLT Tools that we will distribute with the workshop should ease the transition. Our NONMEM Workshops is now in their 6th year. Dennis and I have spent the past three years developing PLT Tools. We introduced PLT Tools as the workshop platform for the 9th Fisher/Shafer NONMEM course in Bethesda, Maryland, giving participants in that course access to bootstrap analysis, log-likelihood profiling, and jackknife analysis, in addition to the outstanding diagnostic graphics from PLT Tools. The latest version incorporates suggestions from the attendees at the last NONMEM workshop in Basel, Switzerland, including time after dose graphics, improved bootstrap handling, and full compatibility with NONMEM 7 and NMQUAL. You can download the completely functional unlicensed version of PLT Tools from http://www.pltsoft.com www.pltsoft.com. 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. PLT Tools also includes 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 http://www.pltsoft.com www.pltsoft.com. The licensed version of PLT Tools supports multiple simultaneous NONMEM runs, which can substantially facilitate throughput on multicore computers. A multiuser networked version of PLT Tools is also available. The multiuser networked version can distribute NONMEM jobs across multiple 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. The feedback from the 9th and 10th courses indicated that PLT Tools was exceedingly well received, and workshop participants appreciated their having access to these advanced and powerful tools. Dennis and I hope to see you in April in San Francisco! 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