SPH This Year 2021

Biostatistics: Now Is the Time

Biostatistics is at the root of all major advances in public health, helping distinguish key patterns on which to base sound decisions that promote better health and a higher quality of life around the world.

The Boston University School of Public Health Department of Biostatistics emphasizes cutting-edge research interests and methods, including statistical genetics, clinical trials, and Bayesian statistics. Pairing that with world-class faculty, the department offers outstanding educational programs to train future biostatisticians, a career ranked among the best for job satisfaction and pay.

“Our biostatistics faculty and students are an integral part of multidisciplinary research teams, providing unique training opportunities in applied biostatistics for our students,” says Josée Dupuis, professor and chair of biostatistics. “Our excellence in research synergizes with our strong commitment to teaching and mentoring the next generation of biostatisticians.”

Biostatistics faculty teach courses for the Epidemiology and Biostatistics certificate in the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree program, as well as the Master of Science (MS) in Applied Biostatistics, started in the fall of 2017. In 2020, 100 percent of graduates from the MS in Applied Biostatistics program were employed or continuing their education within 6 months of graduation. The Master of Science (MS) in Biostatistics degree program and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Biostatistics are also jointly administered by the Department of Biostatistics at BUSPH and the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at the BU Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

“Our department is very supportive, collegial, collaborative, and student-centered,” Dupuis says. “I am proud of the impact of the research led and supported by BUSPH biostatisticians and alumni, and of the outstanding educational programs that we offer.”

Initially founded as a joint department with Epidemiology, Biostatistics became an individual department about 20 years ago, Dupuis says. The first chair of the stand-alone department was L. Adrienne Cupples, professor of biostatistics, followed by Lisa Sullivan, who is now associate dean for education at SPH. In 2005, the department was awarded a T32 training grant, which supports doctoral students for the first two years of their program. Over the last 15 years, 36 students were trained in the responsible conduct of research and completed rotations with faculty in areas of statistical genetics and genomics, observational studies, and clinical trials.

Since the beginning, the department has had many accomplishments, including the creation of the L. Adrienne Cupples Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Service in Biostatistics (with L. Adrienne Cupples herself as the inaugural recipient in 2012), the founding of the Summer Institute for Research Education in Biostatistics (SIBS), and collaboration with research projects like the Framingham Heart Study, the longest-running cardiovascular health study in the US.

“The SIBS program has brought in a highly diverse pool of participants for over 15 years,” Dupuis says. “We’ve also had many years of collaboration with the Framingham Heart Study, where biostatisticians have held the role of co-principal investigators.”

The Framingham Heart study partnership also led to the formation of the Statistical Genetics Working Group, now called the Statistical Genetics Seminar Series. In the 1990’s, a small group of faculty members from the SPH Biostatistics Department and BU School of Medicine started the group to conduct research made possible by the availability of extended family histories in the Framingham Heart Study generational cohorts.

Key projects within the department also include research on Alzheimer’s Disease and infectious diseases including HIV, hepatitis-C, tuberculosis, and COVID-19.

“We’ve done a lot of impactful research in a variety of areas, specifically with substance use, neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and infectious diseases,” Dupuis says.

Via research and teaching, Dupuis sees the department expanding their role in key emerging areas of biostatistics that are now arising from the availability of large databases. With the increasing amount of data collected every day, investigators and biostatisticians will be able to answer public health questions using data collected for non-research purposes.

“Because of possible biases in these convenience samples, the role of biostatisticians in applying and developing statistical approaches to extract meaningful information from these large datasets will be of the utmost importance,” Dupuis says. “We anticipate being at the forefront of the critically important training of public health professionals to be savvy data consumers.”