Biostatistical Resources and Research Support

Biostatistical services are available through the Department of Pediatrics at cost. Please fill out a service request form here and someone with the CRI will contact you to follow up.

Biostatisticians at the CSRL provide expertise in sampling, questionnaire design, nonresponse adjustments, population-based weights and complex statistical analysis as well as data collection by telephone, Internet, mail or face-to-face. Free consultations are available.

The UNC Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) biostatistics training core has developed several excellent introductory presentations on statistical concepts relevant to clinical and translational research. Read more>>

The Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility at the Gillings School of Global Public Health is hosting a Biostatistics Weekly Walk-in Clinic. Every Monday, from 12:15-2:15pm, stop by 253A Rosenau Hall to get help with study design, power calculations and data analysis. These FREE services are open to all graduate students, post-doctoral students, and faculty conducting research at UNC related to cardiopulmonary disease, developmental disease, or environmental cancers. No appointment is necessary.

Housed within the Department of Biostatistics, the CSCC is a data coordinating center for multi-site clinical trials and observational studies. The CSCC provides:

• Statistical collaboration on protocol design
• Design and implementation of a state-of-the-art electronic data collection and management system using the Carolina Data and Reporting Tool (C-DART) platform. C-DART is jointly developed by the CSCC and NC TraCS
• Multi-site trial project management, clinical site training and monitoring, database QC and cleaning, status reports, DSMB/OSMB reports
• Statistical analysis, manuscript collaboration, manuscript tracking for large studies, generation of public access databases

Biostatisticians and CSCC staff can be written into a grant or contract. Initial consultation may be arranged through NC TraCS.

Librarians at the Health Sciences Library can be a partner in your research process by providing informationist and data management support, guidance, and referrals. They can also provide in-person consultations about your research, instruction or training for teams and classes, and consultation in research-related workshops or events. You can learn more about the Health Science Library’s Research Hub by clicking here.

The Department of Pediatrics will be acquiring the Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID) from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for the use of faculty and fellows who are interested in conducting health services research in large administrative databases – or who wish to learn about using such databases!

The KID is one of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) family of databases created and supported by AHRQ. HCUP has been the means of providing researchers with publicly available data at the encounter level. KID contains inpatient treatment and charge data on patients younger than 21 years of age. It is the only all-payer database on children’s health service use.

KID data are captured every three years, and our department will acquire the entire current archive of data from 1997 through 2009. Because the database is large, it permits analysis of rare conditions, but it is also a valuable tool for study of preventable hospitalizations, costs as represented by charges, quality, safety, and comorbidities among other researchable questions.

This link will take you to AHRQ’s KID home page, where you will find considerable information on the contents of the data, and rules for its use.

Several members of the Department of Pediatrics faculty can assist faculty with the use of the data for exploration of research questions. Use of the data does not require a programmer, but some statistical and data analysis experience is helpful. The Department provides some biostatistical support as part of its faculty development portfolio.

Please contact Sue Tolleson-Rinehart for additional information or if you intend to use KID for research projects.

Housed within the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC), the Biostatistics and Data Management Core is a no-charge facility open to LCCC members and those performing cancer research at UNC. The Core provides weekly walk-in clinics as well as individual consultation and support for:

• Research and protocol design, including implementation and programming of specific sampling schemes, the assistance in clinical protocol preparation, including the choice of proper design and statistical analysis methods, and the development of special software programs or macros for handling non-standard data analysis situations.
• Data management, including database design, creation, and implementation, documentation, maintenance and quality assurance, and user support for centralized patient and population study databases, including study databases.
• Data analysis for clinical trials and for epidemiologic, cancer prevention and control, and basic science studies.

Faculty may submit requests for biostatistical support through the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (NCTraCS) here. A biostatistician group will review each request, ask any questions they may have, and then determine the best option, as follows:

• Walk-in clinics (no cost) – For general statistical questions or consulting.
• Overview (no cost) – General/broad advice from a biostatistician about a given research project.
• Seminar Series (no cost) – Provides junior clinical and translational researchers who have basic quantitative training in biostatistical methods with a more in depth understanding of selected topics and to introduce them to more advanced methods. Emphasis is placed on what is needed to understand a statistical method or concept in order to recognize whether a methodology is potentially relevant to their research aim and choice of study design, and appropriately interpret results of analyses using the methodology.
• Group feedback (no cost) – If your data are complicated and routine analysis does not apply, faculty may present to a group of Biostatisticians at the Bios Core Grand Rounds and they will discuss the problem with you and provide you with suggestions. Depending on the problem, follow-up meetings with a subgroup of Biostatisticians are available.
• In-depth support (cost) – Fees associated with the in-depth support options are determined individually by a Professor in the Department of Biostatistics, and are based on each faculty member’s need. Options for support are as follows:
  • Biostatistician that oversees your work
  • Biostatistician that does the work for small bursts throughout lifetime of project
  • Biostatistician that is integrally involved in the project
  • Biostatisticians can be written into a grant or contract

The Odum Institute offers walk-in, short-term and longer-term statistical, survey and data management consulting. The Institute also provides a range of short courses including quantitative and qualitative methods, survey research and data management.

Biostatisticians from UNC’s Department of Biostatistics can be written into a grant or contract. Funds are available through the Department of Pediatrics to support a percentage of the Biostatistician’s and their programmer’s time. Check with your division chief as necessary or contact us via email at childrensresearch@med.unc.edu