The mission of this core is to provide biostatistics and data management expertise and resources to enhance reliable and objective research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
As the name implies, the Biostatistics and Data
Management Core has two primary functions. Through collaboration with Center
scientists, our biostatisticians provide statistical support for clinical and
non-clinical studies conducted at the Center. And, our data management team,
consisting of systems analysts and applications programmers, is responsible for
implementation and maintenance of the Central Clinical Database, the
institution’s primary archive of clinical research data.
Biostatistical
functions of the Core include general statistical consultation, experimental
design consultation, sample size determination and power analyses, data analysis
and interpretation, and reporting of results of clinical studies. In addition,
our biostatisticians pursue independent research in statistical theory and
methods related to the planning and conduct of clinical trials.
The
database management team’s responsibilities center on the prime mission of
creating and maintaining the unified central database for clinical data at PBRC.
In addition, our programmers are charged with development of the specialized
applications that are used to collect clinical data from diverse sources
throughout the institution. Also, this group has responsibility for the
continuing development of CDA, an application that provides authorized users a
web-based portal to the clinical database.
