Web-based tools for finding optimal designs in biomedical studies

Experimental costs are rising and applications of optimal design ideas are increasingly applied in many disciplines. However, the theory for constructing optimal designs can be esoteric and its implementation can be difficult. To help practitioners have easier access to optimal designs and better appreciate design issues, we present a web site at http://optimal-design.biostat.ucla.edu/optimal/ capable of generating different types of tailor-made optimal designs for popular models in the biological sciences. This site also evaluates various efficiencies of a user-specified design and so enables practitioners to appreciate robustness properties of the design before implementation.