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 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 the improved accessibility of research data, development of methods for analysis and combining data, for example by means of record linkage or distributed analyses, is increasingly important.

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.

Within the inter-departmental working group GeTTCausal (GePaRD & Target Trials for Causal Inference), we combine expertise in secondary data analysis, causal inference, and clinical epidemiology to best analyze important causal questions based on GePaRD using the "target trial emulation" (TTE) approach.

Marvin N. Wright
Head of Department

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Marvin N. Wright
Tel: +49 (0)421 218-56945
Fax: +49 (0)421 218-56941

Email:
wright(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