School of Dentistry

The Center of Excellence in Oral and Craniofacial Biology

LSU-HSC School of Dentistry Biostatistical Core

The Biostatistical Core was created through funding from COBRE grant P20RR020160 awarded to the Center of Excellence in Oral & Craniofacial Biology at the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Dentistry

The Biostatistics Core offers the following serice to the Dental School community:

Short Term Projects:
We provide statistical advice and assistance on short-term projects at no charge to students, residents, researchers, and faculty at the Dental School. Please contact us early in your research. We can usually provide the most benefit when you involve us at the planning stages of your study. While each project is different, normal turn-around on small projects is 5-10 business days. Please plan accordingly to meet submission deadlines. Requests for analysis for same or next day turn-around will not be considered.

Our services include:

• Providing advice and guidance on study design.
• Providing advice and assistance with writing statistical methods sections and data analysis plans.
• Providing assistance with data analysis.
• Provide advice on data entry, however, we do not provide a data entry service.
• Assisting researchers in the interpretation of statistical results.
• Collaborate with researchers in writing results sections of research papers. In this case, and cases where a meaningful contribution to a manuscript is made, co-authorship is expected.
• Attending and providing feedback on study design and statistical issues at grant seekers meetings. (Note: it is the P.I.'s responsibility to invite the biostatistician to the meeting)

Long Term Collaborative Research:
We seek to develop long-term collaborations with oral health researchers. This is usually initiated by providing assistance with research grant proposals that include assistance with selection of study design, sample size estimation, and drafting of statistical methodology/analysis sections. The expectation is that the biostatistician would be included on research proposals as a co-investigator typically with a percentage effort budgeted to support his/her time and effort. Other arrangements can be discussed with the Biostatistics Core Director for assistance with other funded projects such as industry sponsored studies and clinical trials.

Faculty

Areas of Interest:
Experimental Design
Permutation Tests
Correlated Data Methods
Linear Models
Clinical Trials

Areas of Interest:
Bayesian Modeling
Bayesian Clinical Trial
Causal Effect Analysis
Computational Method
Human-Aided Machine Learning
Spatial Analysis
Survey Research

What you should bring to your first meeting:
Important items to bring along to your first meeting with us are:

• Draft of your research proposal, manuscript, or written aims and hypotheses, including a data table template with a brief data dictionary. Be prepared to discuss in detail your research hypotheses.

• Relevant journal articles that might help describe your research to the bio-statistician.

• Residents and students will need to have their research advisor present at the initial meeting (either in-person or conference call). In lieu of the presence of advisor, residents and students can email Dr. Yu and copy to their advisor the research proposal with advisor�s signature before meeting.

• If you are coming for data analysis, you will also need an electronic copy of your data (preferably in Excel) on a CD or e-mailed to us before the meeting along with an explanation of the data fields.

How to Set Up an Appointment
Email Dr. Qingzhao Yu, PhD at qyu@lsuhsc.edu (preferred), or call at 568-6086.

Office Hours:
The Biostatistical Core's office is located at room 6333 in dental school. Please contact Dr. Yu to determine a mutually convenient time to discuss your project or inquiry. All meetings will be held in the Core office at the Dental School (6333) unless otherwise arranged. We usually arrange for meetings within 5-10 business days. Asking questions through email is welcome at any time.

Resources

Rice University's Statistical Resources