Two years after the foundation of the institute, the Department of Biometry and Data Management has been established in 1983. In the beginning exclusively intended as a service unit supporting the other departments in planning, realising and evaluating epidemiological studies and ensuring an efficient IT infrastructure and database administration, it soon evolved into a department working on questions regarding methods and contents. Besides the indispensable IT services (see IT, Data Management and Medical Documentation Unit) the department emphasises on harnessing and developing biometric methods for epidemiological issues. 

Biometry

The institute has been in the position to assemble biometricians experienced in a wide range of epidemiological studies (case control, cohort, cross-sectional, longitudinal, incidence studies, etc.) as permanent staff. For specific research projects, a number of short-term employees as well as postgraduate students (usually financed by third parties) extend the range of methods employed in the department. In this context the department also offers the opportunity to write a PhD thesis.

Methods development

We are presently working on diverse topics: these include statistical issues related to the pharmacoepidemiologic research database (twophase studies, control for confounding - Statistical Modeling of Secondary and Registry Data Unit), improvement of statistical procedures in the analysis of gene-gene- and gene-environment interactions, the identification of biological pathways involved in the development of diseases and in the statistical modeling of pathways, accumulations of risk or critical time periods in life-course epidemiology (Statistical Methods for Genetics and Molecular Epidemiology Unit), statistical modeling of nutrition data and use of geographical information systems in epidemiologic studies (Statistical Modeling of Primary Data Unit). Furthermore, the department engages in the development of methods for causal inference, e.g. for instrumental variables or time-varying confounding (Statistical Methods for Causal Inference Research Group), and statistical machine learning (Emmy Noether Junior Research Group: Beyond Prediction - Statistical Inference with Machine Learning).

Statistical support - quantitative methods consulting service

The department also houses a methods consultancy service that is used BIPS-internally as well as externally by other research institutions and scientifically working clinicians, primarily from Bremen and the surrounding region. Support is mainly requested in the planning phase of studies e.g. on the selection of the study design or on sample size calculations. Appropriate analysis methods are proposed and/or developed and support in the application of methods as well as in the interpretation and presentation of results is provided.

Data Management

The department is responsible to provide an efficient IT infrastructure for the whole institute. It also develops tools and methods for the implementation of epidemiological studies. Maintenance, administration and activation of the institute's data stock is another responsibility as well as supporting the other departments in planning and carrying out studies. Tools and know how from the fields of data management and medical documentation are shared with external partners in the conduct of common projects. The IT, Data Management and Medical Documentation Unit is responsible for this area of work. The team is comprised of computer specialists and medical documentalists. Within the interdepartmental working group GeTTCausal (GePaRD & Target Trials for Causal Inference), we combine our expertise in secondary data analyses, causal inference and clinical epidemiology to address important causal questions based on GePaRD using the "target trial emulation" (TTE) approach. 

Iris Pigeot
Head of Department (Scientific Director)

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Iris Pigeot
Tel: +49 (0)421 218-56742
Fax: +49 (0)421 218-56741

Email:
pigeot(at)leibniz-bips.de

Vanessa Didelez
Deputy Head of Department
(Head of Research Group)

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Vanessa Didelez
Tel: +49 (0)421 218-56939
Fax: +49 (0)421 218-56941

Email:
didelez(at)leibniz-bips.de

• Statistical Modeling of Primary Data
• Statistical Modeling of Secondary and Registry Data
• Statistical Methods for Genetics and Molecular Epidemiology
• IT, Data Management and Medical Documentation
• Statistical Methods for Causal Inference Research Group
• Emmy Noether Junior Research Group: Beyond Prediction - Statistical Inference with Machine Learning

Stefanie Brand
Tel.: +49 (0)421 218-56750
sbrand(at)leibniz-bips.de