Thursday 16 December 2021 10:20am
The launch party for the Biostatistics Centre.
The Biostatistics Centre was officially launched in early December, four years after it was established, with a celebration at the Staff Club.
The delay in the launch was not because the Centre has been resting on its laurels – quite the opposite – the team of six has already collaborated with researchers in the Division of Health Sciences on projects totalling more than $14 million of research funding across a broad range of research.
”We are really fortunate to have this team of skilled and committed academic biostatisticians in our Division. Forming a Centre has helped us to focus on and elevate this important aspect of research. It has been fantastic to see the Centre go from strength-to-strength and contribute to excellence in research, helping improve the quality of research, health knowledge and health outcomes.”
It has also built the capability of biostatistics methodology, through collaborations, seminars and establishing a highly-sought-after short course programme.
Centre Director, Associate Professor Robin Turner says along with the busy start for the Centre, COVID-19 also contributed to the delay in an official launch.
“Though, perhaps it is fitting to our profession that we haven’t officially launched the Centre until we have some good evidence and a really good success story in place!”
She and her team - Mr Andrew Gray, Dr Ari Samaranayaka, Dr Claire Cameron, Dr Ella Iosua, Ms Elise Velenski, Dr Jill Haszard and Miss Vicky He - enjoy working across a broad range of research projects. Associate Professor Turner is proud of the team’s hard work, and she sees a growing demand for skilled biostatisticians.
“We have a really talented team here, we love to hear research ideas, and to collaborate. I want to encourage health science researchers to talk to us early and talk to us often about their project. Our value isn’t realised by coming to us at the end of a project when data is already collected. We understand how the design of the study, including setting the right research question, ensuring data collection and the analysis all fit together to tell the right story from the data.”
The Centre is also focussed on building capability in biostatistics in the wider health research community. The Centre offers short courses through the year that are unique in New Zealand and in high demand.
Associate Professor Turner says the short courses are a ‘fun, gentle introduction to biostatistics.’ Participants come from Otago, and other academic institutions and include supervisors seeking to learn a common language with students, as well as researchers improving their own methodology. The team is also getting international enrolment requests and considering online provision to meet the demand.
Division of Health Sciences Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Brunton says biostatistics is an integral part of health research at the University.
”We are really fortunate to have this team of skilled and committed academic biostatisticians in our Division. Forming a Centre has helped us to focus on and elevate this important aspect of research. It has been fantastic to see the Centre go from strength-to-strength and contribute to excellence in research, helping improve the quality of research, health knowledge and health outcomes.”