The Alan Turing Institute

Secondment applications: structured missingness

Missing data are a common problem that arise in many fields and can significantly complicate analysis. While there are established ways to handle data that is missing at random, it is often the case that missing readings are structured in some way. Dealing with such structured missingness is substantially more challenging yet occurs commonly in healthcare (and other) contexts. For example, one cohort of patients may have been given a certain test, another may not, leading to blocks of missing readings. Simply excluding such missing (or potentially inaccurate) data can significantly bias subsequent analysis. Consequently, there is a need to develop rigorous ways to understand structured missingness and develop tools to handle it appropriately.

As an example, the Roche Clinico-Genomic Database, combines real-world patient level clinical data with in-depth genomic profiling for over 30,000 patients. While this data set of enormously rich, it also possesses significant structured missingness: the sets of genes measured varies between patients depending upon which tests they received; similarly, the clinical measurements vary between patients depending upon their particular indication.

We recently ran a series of virtual workshops on the topic of structured missingness with the aim of convening a community of researchers interested in developing new tools and methods to learn from hetrogenous data with structured patterns of missing readings.

Stemming from the workshop we are now inviting applications for proposals of projects that address structured missingness. This call invites project ideas that have been generated through the collaborative discussions, networking, and co-creation of project ideas using the whiteboarding platform during the workshops, as well as proposals from those who did not attend the workshops. 

Please note that you are able to apply even if you did not attend the workshops but please be aware collaboration is key throughout the project lifecycle. Each project team seconded under the structured missingness workstream will be expected to communicate with one another through meetings such as knowledge shares, as well as work with the Partnership Community Manager to engage with one another and to actively collaborate with Roche researchers in this area. In addition, project teams are expected to all communicate and collaborate asynchronously e.g., via Slack discussions.

Full details

Q&A Session

In addition to the Structured Missingness workshops and our live our call for proposals.  We are holding a Q&A session on January 12, 11am-12pm for all interested applicants. Please find the link to register in advance below.

Register in advance for this meeting: https://turing-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYucOCtpzoqH9bmsZETz8leDxeWHcqePEk5 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.