Biostatistics Support Services

Statistical support services are available to assist investigators with research projects from inception through final analysis. By developing a collaborative relationship through our statistical support services, researchers can raise the quality of their research, thereby improving study results and ultimately paving the way for improved therapies and cures for the patients at Lurie Children's. Our primary goal is to enhance the quality and efficiency of research conducted at Lurie Children's. We achieve this by providing expertise in study design, data analysis, and dissemination of findings. Our team is committed to supporting the advancement of pediatric healthcare research by ensuring that studies are well-planned, accurately analyzed, and effectively communicated. 

Core Services

• Consultation: We discuss project ideas and proposals with investigators, provide education and feedback on study designs, study protocols, and relevant statistical and computational methods, and work with the investigator to plan a path forward for the project. Consultations are free for up to 3 hours.
• Project Services: We are available to collaborate on research projects with well-defined scope and concrete deliverables. These services are billed at our hourly rate and include:
  • Data preparation: Data cleaning, merging, transformation, imputation, sub-setting
  • Descriptive statistics: Summary tables, exploratory data analysis
  • Methods selection and development: Literature search, comparison of feasible methods, and prototyping novel approaches to meet research goals
  • Inferential analysis: Regression analysis (GLM, mixed-effects, survival), time series, casual inference, ROC/diagnostic accuracy, non-parametric analysis, and other specialty techniques
  • Results interpretation: Written results reports and meetings
  • Results dissemination: Drafting and critical review of methods and results sections, generation of publication-ready tables and figures, and manuscript review.
• Grant Development: We provide up to twenty hours of grant development support free-of-charge to investigators, under the condition that our team members are or services are funded to work on the proposed project. The support includes:
  • Preparing supporting documentation, including letter of support, biosketch, and budget justification
  • Preliminary analysis
  • Power and sample size calculation
  • Statistical literature review
  • Statistical methodology decisions
  • Proposal writing and editing.