Drs. Thomas Debray

I am a PhD student at the Department of Theoretical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, Utrecht) under supervision of Prof. KGM Moons and Dr. H Koffijberg, and collaborating with Prof. EW Steyerberg, Dr. Y Vergouwe, Dr. R Riley and Prof. J Deeks. My experiences are mainly founded in the field of Prediction Research, Meta-Analysis and Software Engeneering. At this time, I investigate methods for incorporating aggregate data and multiple individual patient datasets in the development of novel clinical prediction models. These methods rely on robust estimation techniques and aim to improve the generalization of novel prediction models. My master thesis studies the classification task in the presence of class imbalanced data, e.g. diagnosing diseases with a low prevalence. Its main contribution is the introduction of a new approach which outperforms a number of established approaches when dealing with small samples. This thesis was performed under supervision of Prof. F Buntinx, Dr. EN Smirnov and Dr. G Nalbantov.

Besides performing research and developing software, I enjoy the company of friends, exposure to food, music, art, literature and movies, traveling around the world and hiking in nature. In addition, I am a practising fan of jitsu.