rpharma apac blog post

posts/rpharma-2024-virtual-oct29-nov1-apac-track/index.qmd

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+---
+title: "R/Pharma 2024, Virtual, October 29-November 1, Includes New Dedicated Asia-Pacific (APAC) Track"
+description: "R/Pharma 2024 is coming up Oct 29-Nov 1, 2024. This is a free event, fully virtual. For the first time, R/Pharma will be including a dedicated Asia-Pacific (APAC) track which better aligns with Asian time zones."
+author: "R Consortium"
+image: "rpharma-apac-main-image.png"
+date: "10/14/2024"
+---
+
+![](rpharma-apac-main-image.png)
+
+R/Pharma 2024 is coming up Oct 29-Nov 1, 2024. This is a free event, fully virtual. R users in Pharma 
+around the world are encouraged to attend, ask questions, and contribute their opinions!
+
+## [Register now for free!](https://events.zoom.us/ev/AvobJEOTVwkUnH6_TgLZDZJauk4dxfm5jCG8JFNN9zukOcsVLvTN~AmO5XY5HRBcxkKG6Hga1aXZaYtpBSER6jHms1seP-NNOA0dhcQZUGJ2NWg) 
+
+For the first time, R/Pharma will be including a dedicated Asia-Pacific (APAC) track which better 
+aligns with Asian time zones and includes 2 pre-conference workshops, 3 keynotes that will be recorded 
+from the global track and then streamed with live discussion sessions thereafter, and 2 live panels, 
+one focusing on Japan, and one on China. In addition, there are 20 contributed talks.
+
+![](rpharma-china-panel.png)
+
+![](rpharma-japan-panel.png)
+
+The R Consortium talked with Daniel Sabanés Bové, R/Pharma organizer, co-chair of openstatsware.org, 
+co-founder of RCONIS, a biostatistics consulting and software engineering firm, (co-)author of multiple 
+R packages published on CRAN and Bioconductor, and author of the book “Likelihood and Bayesian Inference: 
+With Applications in Biology and Medicine.” Daniel is giving a 3-hour workshop on October 27 with Joe 
+Zhu (Roche) on “Good Software Engineering Practice for R Packages,” and introducing openstatsware in 
+a talk on 31 October. 
+
+We talked to Daniel to find out more about the new APAC track.
+
+![](daniel.png)
+
+
+### Why is R/Pharma adding an APAC track now? 
+
+Last year, I was on an extended business trip for Roche for 6 weeks in Shanghai. I was fortunate to 
+attend the first China Pharma R User Group (RUG) Meeting in March 2023, so I have seen how active the 
+community is. I also found out how tough it can be to be based in Asia - you just don't get enough 
+sleep working with colleagues in Europe and North America!
+
+So when the R/Pharma program committee reported that they have been approached by colleagues in Asia 
+about organizing events in their time zone or region, I used the opportunity of my upcoming move to 
+Taipei mid 2024 to propose organizing a dedicated track in the Asia-Pacific timezones.
+
+The R/Pharma APAC track is designed specifically to help avoid time zone burnout, as well as to 
+foster the APAC regional community.
+
+### How does adoption of R in Pharma in APAC differ from other parts of the world?
+
+This is not based on robust data, but from a personal perspective I have noticed one key feature is 
+that biotech and Pharma companies in Asia are concentrated in a few hubs, there is Shanghai, Tokyo, 
+and not too many more. Having said that, I have noticed the rise of Contract Research Organizations 
+(CROs) e.g. in India that are starting to use R - the CROs are catching up. Compare that to Europe 
+and the United States, with a wide range of Pharma companies and organizations spread around many 
+different locations. This also influences the adoption of R and open source technologies in general.
+
+
+
+### What are some of the key topics being covered in the APAC track?
+
+I was pleasantly surprised at the amount and variety of proposals submitted. We have organized 
+the APAC track’s topics into 6 types of sessions:
+
+* Change management (moving from proprietary software to R)
+* Sessional clinical reporting (producing tables and reports)
+* Shiny
+* Best practices
+* AI/ML
+* High dimensional data
+
+We have quite an exciting APAC Track program that includes:
+
+* 2 pre conference workshops
+* 3 keynote streams, which are recorded keynotes that are slightly delayed to stream during convenient APAC times, plus we have added some discussion after
+* 2 live panel discussion (China, Japan)
+* 20 contributed talks in total
+
+### Full Agenda
+
+A full list of workshops, keynotes, talks and panels is available 
+[here](https://events.zoom.us/ev/AvobJEOTVwkUnH6_TgLZDZJauk4dxfm5jCG8JFNN9zukOcsVLvTN~AmO5XY5HRBcxkKG6Hga1aXZaYtpBSER6jHms1seP-NNOA0dhcQZUGJ2NWg).
+
+If you use the filter button you can get just the APAC Track information.
+
+![](filter.png)
+
+![](filter-apac.png)
+
+
+
+## [Register now for free!](https://events.zoom.us/ev/AvobJEOTVwkUnH6_TgLZDZJauk4dxfm5jCG8JFNN9zukOcsVLvTN~AmO5XY5HRBcxkKG6Hga1aXZaYtpBSER6jHms1seP-NNOA0dhcQZUGJ2NWg) 
+
+If you, or your organization, would like to support R/Pharma you can do so following 
+[this link](https://www.pledge.to/r-pharma). Be sure to follow the R/Pharma 
+[blog](https://rinpharma.com/post/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-source-in-pharma) and 
+[Twitter/X](https://x.com/rinpharma).