The good, the bad and the ugly

A quick update from me about a couple of things, some good, some bad and other … ugly.

• Let’s start with the good. I have found the time to work on some old projects which are finally progressing in their late stages. The most important news is that my article on Bayesian methods for partitioned survival cost-utility analyses has been published in pre-print form and is available for free here. Soon the offical version will become available as open access which is really nice if anyone would be interested in my methods. As for the other projects, at themoment I cannot say too much but they are all very interesting and involve the collaboration with some cool people I had the privilege to work with during my past experience at UCL. Hopefully, in the next couple of months some concrete proof of these collaborations will become publicly available and I am exicted to talk about these projects which I think have a huge potential. I also have a couple of ideas for some future projects and I hope during the summer to have some extra time to dedicate to them. I would particularly like to start coding up some Bayesian statistical methods into a new R package to make these more accessible to everybody and I have some coll ideas in mind. It is only matter to find the time to put them into practice!

• Now the bad. The weather in the last period has not been great here in the Netherlands with lots of raining days which, coupled with some extensive teaching duties, did not really help to put me into a good mood for doing some research. I managed to work on some on-going projects but I could not find the time to start new projects or going back to some old ideas which I still have in mind. I am also haunted by thesis consultations with some master students which take lots of time and in this period I cannot find the energy to do anything else apart from routine activities. In addition, the situation of the vaccines does not seem to improve very quickly as my age group will likley receive the vaccine only towards the end of June which means that it may not be possible for me to go back to Italy to see my parents and friends during the summer as I might be asked to be back for the second dose. I hope this situation will be solved before the start of the new academic year. I really miss traveling!

• Finally, the ugly. I have some harsh deadlines which are coming up with respect to some joint projects on some applied works. Nothing particularly complex but they tend to be time consuming and require my attendance to many meetings which I do not find extremely interesting, let’s just say that. The next couple of weeks will be crucial and I really need to find some time to be ready and focus on finishing off these projects which I have dragged from a long time. I have also received confirmation that my invited talk R-HTA 2021 workshop this July will be totally online which makes me a bit sad as I find it really difficult to discuss my research without a physical audience in front of me. Next month I am also volunteering for presenting my work at my department and I need to come up with some good ideas for summaring my entire research in a way which does not completely bore my new colleagues. Seems like a mission imposiible if you ask me but I will give it a shot as soon as I have some time.

So, many good things are in development but there are also bad things which I must first attend as well as some ugly things from which I cannot really escape. Wish me good luck!