Biostatisticians
If you feel pain somewhere in your body, all you need to do is consult a specialist doctor, who'll prescribe the right treatment for your condition. Most of the treatments doctors prescribe for patients come in the form of medicines we buy at pharmacies. Manufacturing medicine goes through many stages to make sure it's effective and won't cause any harm when used - any medicine in the manufacturing stage is first tested on animals, then on a number of human volunteers. The stage where medicines are tested on humans is called "clinical trials," where drugs are tested on male and female volunteers from different age groups. A group of scientists from different specializations take part in manufacturing medicine. One of the most important of these scientists are biostatisticians, who determine the appropriate methods for testing drugs on humans. They're also responsible for analyzing and interpreting trial results, to figure out how a medicine should be used and identify any side effects it might cause. Biostatisticians also take part in preparing any medical statistics related to human life.
Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa
What You'll Actually Do
The core tasks and responsibilities that fill a typical day.
- Write research proposals or grant applications for submission to external bodies.
- Teach graduate or continuing education courses or seminars in biostatistics.
- Read current literature, attend meetings or conferences, and talk with colleagues to keep abreast of methodological or conceptual developments in fields such as biostatistics, pharmacology, life sciences, and social sciences.
- Prepare statistical data for inclusion in reports to data monitoring committees, federal regulatory agencies, managers, or clients.
- Prepare articles for publication or presentation at professional conferences.
- Calculate sample size requirements for clinical studies.
- Determine project plans, timelines, or technical objectives for statistical aspects of biological research studies.
- Assign work to biostatistical assistants or programmers.
- Write program code to analyze data with statistical analysis software.
- Write detailed analysis plans and descriptions of analyses and findings for research protocols or reports.
- Plan or direct research studies related to life sciences.
- Prepare tables and graphs to present clinical data or results.
- Monitor clinical trials or experiments to ensure adherence to established procedures or to verify the quality of data collected.
- Draw conclusions or make predictions, based on data summaries or statistical analyses.
- Develop or use mathematical models to track changes in biological phenomena, such as the spread of infectious diseases.
- Design surveys to assess health issues.
- Develop or implement data analysis algorithms.
- Design research studies in collaboration with physicians, life scientists, or other professionals.
- Design or maintain databases of biological data.
- Collect data through surveys or experimentation.
- Analyze archival data, such as birth, death, and disease records.
- Review clinical or other medical research protocols and recommend appropriate statistical analyses.
- Provide biostatistical consultation to clients or colleagues.
- Apply research or simulation results to extend biological theory or recommend new research projects.
- Analyze clinical or survey data, using statistical approaches such as longitudinal analysis, mixed-effect modeling, logistic regression analyses, and model-building techniques.