Welcome

I would like to welcome you to the official Web site of the Department of Biostatistics. The Department of Biostatistics was one of the original departments of Public Health when it was founded in 1949. Faculty members in the department continue to make important contributions to the development of new statistical methodology and to provide the quantitative component to public health and biomedical research efforts that have had a major impact on the prevention and treatment of disease. Collaborative research efforts in the areas of breast cancer, colon cancer, health services and outcomes research, occupational health and otolaryngology are internationally recognized. Graduates from the program have assumed leadership roles in academia, industry, and government. The Department currently has 26 full-time faculty members, and approximately 100 students currently active in one of the academic degree programs. In addition, approximately ninety research and support staff participate in our educational and research programs.

As you review the information contained in the Web site, you will see that the Department provides training in statistical methodology leading to an M.S. or Ph.D. degree as well as training in applying quantitative methods to public health problems leading to an M.P.H. or Dr.P.H. degree. Students interested in the Ph.D. also have the opportunity to specialize in statistical genetics. In all of our degree programs the students will apply statistical methodology to problems in public health and medicine. The extensive experience of the faculty in addressing "real world problems" helps the students "bridge the gap" between their theoretical knowledge base and the practical aspects of addressing complex, multidisciplinary public health and biomedical issues.

The educational program is supported by the Department's extensive array of collaborative research projects. The Biostatistics Department supplies the primary quantitative component to funded research projects totaling more than 14 million dollars annually. Areas of collaborative research include cancer, otolaryngology, radiological imaging systems, psychiatry, health services and outcomes research, and occupational and environmental health. Faculty members in the Department direct the Biostatistical Center for the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) , and the Center for Occupational Biostatistics and Epidemiology (COBE).

The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) is a National Cancer Institute-sponsored cooperative clinical trials group dedicated to the evaluation of new modalities of treatment and prevention for operable breast and colorectal cancer. The NSABP is internationally recognized for its contributions in breast and colorectal cancer and has randomized more than 135,000 patients to more than 60 randomized clinical trials. Landmark findings from the NSABP on breast conserving surgery, the benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy and hormonal therapy, the efficacy of selective estrogen receptor modulators to prevent breast cancer and the benefits of targeting therapy to tumor markers like HER2 have positively impacted the live of millions of breast cancer patients and women at high risk for the development of breast cancer from around the world.

The Department of Biostatistics at the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) has played a major role in the NSABP accomplishments. Since 1974, faculty of the Department of Biostatics have directed the Biostatistical Center of the NSABP and served as the architects of the studies conducted by the group. Currently, there are eight faculty and more than 80 staff of the Department of Biostatistics at the GSPH who work on a daily basis to operate the NSABP Biostatistical Center which is responsible for the design, data collection, quality control and analyses of the trials that have lead to the group’s landmark findings.

Faculty members in the Department of Biostatistics also direct and staff the Biostatistics Facility of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). Working with over 100 cancer researchers at UPCI, the Facility supports the design and analysis of laboratory-based studies, early-phase clinical trials, clinical investigations, and population-science studies of cancer.
For more than 45 years, the Department of Biostatistics has been one of the leading academic centers of occupational and environmental health research in the United States. The Center for Occupational Biostatistics and Epidemiology (COBE) was formed in February 2008 as a research center within the Department of Biostatistics dedicated to occupational biostatistics and epidemiology. The mission of the COBE, based on an approach that is collaborative and multidisciplinary, is to build on the GSPH’s and the Biostatistics Department’s successful, long-standing history in developing and applying biostatistical methods to the study of workplace exposures and health outcomes.

Recent research in the COBE has focused on occupational studies to explore the long-term health effects of employment in occupations, such as jet engine manufacturing and pharmaceutical production and to workplace exposures to agents including acrylamide, chloroprene, formaldehyde, tungsten carbide/cobalt, and man-made mineral fibers. Methodological research includes ongoing development and enhancement of major software and data repositories that are used by hundreds of researchers around the world, namely, the Occupational Cohort Mortality Analysis Program (OCMAP), the Mortality and Population Data System (MPDS) and the Rapid Assessment and Characterization of Environmental Risks (RACER).

In addition to an extensive collaborative effort the Department of Biostatistics is committed to the development of statistical methodology in order to better analyze and interpret studies in public health and medicine. Areas of methodological development include survival analysis, missing data analysis, sampling techniques, inter-rater reliability, exploratory data analysis, clinical trials design, ROC analysis, stochastic modeling, and sequential methods. The academic program provides doctoral students with the necessary tools to subsequently develop an area of independent methodological research.

We look forward to meeting with you to develop a career in one of the many exciting areas within Biostatistics. Thank you for your interest in our Department.

Gary M. Marsh, Ph.D.
Professor and Interim Chair
Director, Center for Occupational Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Webmaster:
Susan Grasky, BSIS

Revised on April 13, 2009