Sophisticated biostatistics for complex clinical research

The role of biostatisticians in clinical research is to contribute to trial design, by calculating sample size for example, and to help draw correct conclusions from the data, discriminating important information from noise. They are instrumental in the translation of a practical problem into a statistical model, and the translation of the result into practice.

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The biostatistics group of the Oxford University Clinical Research unit has an important role in the design and analysis of the studies that are performed in our unit. We collaborate with the other research groups, which each focus on a specific class of infectious diseases, as well as with the clinical trials unit. We contribute to the analysis of the clinical trials, and devise modern trial designs when needed. But we are also involved in observational studies, which have their own statistical challenges.

From a statistical perspective, research interests are

• the construction and validation of models for diagnosis and prediction,
• models for the longitudinal development of markers of disease progression,
• complex time-to-event data.

At the same time, we enhance the statistical skills of our fellow researchers via both basic and advanced courses on statistical methods.