Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design Core
The goal of the Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design Core (BERDC) is to create methodological and biostatistical infrastructure to support clinical and translational cancer research. The BERDC provides the following resources:
Consulting Services and Mentoring Opportunities
The BERDC provides consulting services to address a wide range of biostatistical approaches relevant to cancer research. This core also offers opportunities to serve as a mentor to DaCCoTA investigators, junior faculty and graduate students.
Contact Dr. Mark Williamson or login to Pathfinder to schedule a consultation. All applicants for DaCCoTA RFAs are required to consult with the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design Core prior to submitting their applications.
Data Informatics Services
The BERDC offers a variety of data informatics services including a secure web application designed to support data capture for research studies, extensive computational infrastructure and data storage.
Grant Services
The BERDC offers both pre-award and post-award grant support services, including assistance with research design, statistical analysis, data collection and management, regulatory services, and data access.
Statistical Resources
The BERDC offers a variety of resources on statistical analysis, including data manipulation, analysis, and sample size calculation, as well as links to other biostatistical core resources.
Biostatistics Symposium
The Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design Core hosted a Biostatistics Symposium at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences on July 16.
Dr. Lisa Lix of the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba presented a seminar titled “Population-Based Investigations of Osteoporosis-Related Fractures in Cancer Patients: An Overview of Collaborative Research Projects”.
BERDC Core Faculty
Rashid Ahmed, Ph.D. - Co-Director of the BERDC
Dr. Ahmed is the associate dean for Research at the UND School of Nursing and Professional Disciplines. He has been very successful in obtaining funding from the Canadian Institute of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation, and Cancer Foundation. He has expertise both in epidemiology and biostatistics as well as significant administrative experience to lead this core. He has experience developing statistical methods for the design of community-based interventions and analyzing longitudinal health care data1. He previously worked as a senior epidemiologist with CancerCare in Manitoba, Canada, where his research focused on record linkage between cancer registries and administrative data as a means of informing cancer control activities in Manitoba. Using the population-based data resources of the provincial health department and the cancer agency in Manitoba, he investigated prevention/etiology, early detection, diagnosis/treatment, outcomes and costing of cancer care. As principal investigator or co-investigator on several projects, he addressed behavioral and environmental risk factors for chronic diseases and various aspects of cancer control research. As a biostatistician, Dr. Ahmed has worked with different levels of governments and cancer agencies. As a result, he has used several datasets such as cancer registries, the Ministry of Health, hospital discharge data, prescription drug data, clinical trials and chart review. Dr. Ahmed has published over 41 peer-reviewed articles including many focused on cancer and cancer-related research. Dr. Ahmed is also the principal applicant and co-investigator for ongoing mixed-methods research studies that bridge a number of academic disciplines and health-related issues including physical activity among breast cancer survivors, tobacco use among youth, lifestyle risk factors for cardiac and other chronic diseases among youth, gender differences in lung cancer survival, and economic analysis of treatment of lung cancer. From a methodological perspective, Dr. Ahmed is developing diagnostic measures for joint models for longitudinal and survival data in the presence of non-ignorable missing data. Dr. Ahmed's expertise also includes cost benefit analysis for cancer treatment, longitudinal markers, and relapse-free survival or death, as well as joint models for the longitudinal data and time-to-event outcome.
Gary Schwartz, Ph.D. - Co-Director of the BERDC
Dr. Schwartz is the Chair of the Department of Population Health of the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences and holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and a second Ph.D. in Epidemiology. He has 25 years of experience in cancer research including first or senior author publications in cancer-focused journals such as Cancer, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Leukemia, The Oncologist, and others. He is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed papers with topics ranging from original hypothesis development, preclinical trials and clinical trials in the area of vitamin D and cancer. As a molecular epidemiologist, Dr. Schwartz has interests ranging from the causes of cancer in populations to improving cancer diagnosis in individuals. He has published original models for the etiology of several cancers (e.g., cancers of the prostate, pancreas, testis and uveal melanoma) and has developed and patented screening/triage tests for cancers of the prostate, pancreas and ovary. Dr. Schwartz serves on the editorial boards of several journals and has ongoing collaborations in epidemiology with the Cancer Registry of Norway. He has taught epidemiology to graduate and medical students in the U.S. and abroad and served as an advisor to the World Health Organization. His research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the Lance Armstrong (Livestrong) Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and others.
Ross D. Crosby, Ph.D. - Co-Director of the BERDC
Dr. Crosby is an internationally recognized biostatistician and methodologist. He is currently the vice president for Research and director of Biomedical Statistics at the Neuropsychiatric Research Institute (NRI) of Sanford Health in Fargo, N.D. Dr. Crosby has served as an investigator, statistician, consultant or mentor on over 50 federally funded grants. He currently serves as an investigator on four National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants (R01 AA022336, R01 DK112487, R01 DK112585, R01 MH112681) and two separate collaborative clinical trials funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. He also currently serves as a faculty mentor on a postdoctoral training grant in eating disorders (T32 MH082761). He has served as the director of the data coordinating center for several multi-site clinical trials (e.g., R34 MH077571, R01 MH059674, and R01 DK61911) and as a mentor on five previous NIH K-awards and seven previous F-awards. Dr. Crosby has over 510 peer-reviewed publications and has published extensively in the areas of clinical trials, health services research, latent structure analysis and ecological momentary assessment.
F. Richard Ferraro, Ph.D. - Consultant and Collaborator
Dr. Ferraro is a Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Psychology at UND whose research interests include reaction time, adulthood and aging, Alzheimer’s disease, neuropsychology, and developmental psychology. He has served as editor for the Journal of Psychology and the Journal of General Psychology and currently serves as editor-in-chief for Current Psychology. He is also a guest editor for the Journal of Aging Research and has reviewed over 790 papers for over 70 journals. Dr. Ferraro will serve as a consultant and collaborator for the BERDC.
Sandeep Singhal, Ph.D. - Consultant
Dr. Singhal is an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences. His areas of expertise include data mining, statistical modeling and artificial intelligence. He has a strong background in personalized medicine and cancer genomics, especially in biomarker discovery and toxicity testing.
Corey Smith, Ph.D. - Consultant
Dr. Smith is an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences. His areas of expertise include the application, integration and evaluation of informatics approaches and solutions to problems in the prevention, early detection, treatment and management of chronic disease in medically underserved populations.
Contact the BERDC
Contact the BERDC to schedule a consultation. Also, view the below chart showing the function of the Biostatics Shared Resource model regarding the consultation process.
The BERDC promotes solution-oriented studies and practice-based evidence while moving evidence into action by bringing together a diverse group of professionals with expertise in the areas of methodology, biostatistics, epidemiology and biomedical informatics related to cancer. The BERDC is strengthening relationships across policy, practice and research sectors by building a high‐performing and sustainable enterprise with a reputation for relevance, excellence and influence. Our goal is to build biostatistics methods for translational science, including methods to address important problems in diagnostics and methods for evaluating causal mechanisms that relate to cancer research (such as the environment and genetics).