Radboudumc Technology Center Biostatistics

Biostatistics What is biostatistics?

Biomedical research addresses key research questions:  Which treatment is best? And for which patients, exactly? Can we predict how well patients will respond to therapy? Which gene lies at the root of a hereditary disease? All these questions require data, collected based on well-designed studies. Modern technology allows more and more complex measurements to be gathered for patients, for example using DNA sequencing, fMRI, or continuous monitoring through health-related apps. Statistics has kept pace, offering both basic robust design and analysis methods as well as innovative approaches. These include novel approaches to design studies (sequential or adaptive designs; bayesian designs and n-of-1 studies for rare diseases and personalized medicine) and advanced methods to solve high-dimensional data analysis problems.  

Areas of expertise

The RTC Biostatistics has expertise across the broad area of statistics, and is particularly advanced in areas of its methodology research (prediction modeling and design and analysis of intervention studies). In addition its includes the core statistical group in the Netherlands for biostatistics in drug regulatory science. It includes (but is not limited to):

• Prediction modeling
• Clinical trial design
• Adaptive and sequential design
• Data Monitoring Committees
• Survival analysis and modeling
• Sample size and power for complex designs
• Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
• Statistical analysis of binary data (logistic regression)
• Multivariate methods (discriminant analysis, factor analysis, pattern recognition)
• (Advanced) regression modeling (including nonlinear, splines)
• Statistics in drug development and drug regulation