| Biostatistics and Health Data Science - IU School of Medicine |
 |
|
| HITS 3000 410 W. 10th St, Indianapolis, IN 46202 https://medicine.iu.edu/biostatistics Contact: Kun Huang, kunhuang@iu.edu |
Education and Research | |
| Role(s) | • The Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science (BHDS) serves the community through educational services. • BHDS department members conduct research developing new methods for real world data (RWD), molecular data, imaging data, and clinical trial data. • The BHDS department also supports a large number of studies at Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) by providing data analytics expertise for a variety of assays and data types from basic research, clinical trials, and retrospective studies of RWD. • BHDS also houses biostatistics services such as Data Management, Biostatistics service, Biostatistics and Clinical Data Management, Clinical Trial, Population, RWD, and Basic Science. • BHDS hosts a number of educational programs including a PhD program in Biostatistics, an MS program in Biostatistics, and a BS program in Health Data Science. |
| Mission |
The Department’s mission has three interdependent components: research, service, and education. In research, faculty lead the development of innovative study designs and cutting-edge analytical methods. Faculty expertise covers all biostatistics and data science research areas, including bioinformatics, clinical trial design, observational studies and causal inference, statistical models, imaging processing, machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms, as well as advanced computational methods. In service, the department supports biomedical research in Indianapolis and beyond by providing study design, data management, and data analysis to support grant development and scientific publication. Faculty and staff collaborate with basic science researchers and medical investigators in all specialty areas. In education, the department strives to provide a conducive learning environment that prepares trainees to become statistical analysts and data scientists skilled in solving real-world problems. Specifically the mission of BHDS is: The vision of the department is to become a national leader in biostatistics and data science and to advance science and improve health, through scientific collaboration, method development and quantitative education. |
| History | The Department of Biostatistics became a department in IUSM in 2011. During 2022 the Department changed names to the Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science with the addition of the Data Science group. |
| Org | Leadership: • Kun Huang, Department Chair • Wanzhu Tu, Vice Department Chair • Shari Stansbery, Vice Chair of Finance • 25 faculty members |
| Board | N/A |
| Finance | Funding from NSF, NIH, and other funding sources Funding from industry partners such as Eli Lilly Funding from the Precision Health Initiative Funding from Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute |
| Data Sources | • IUSM, Optum, National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C), IU Health, and industry partners are the primary sources of data for BHDS. • IUSM is a large medical school conducting a broad array of different types of medical research. Due to this expansive research, there is a significant amount of clinical data, molecular data, imaging, and other assay data. • Optum is a healthcare company which has acquired a large and diverse database of electronic health record derived RWD. • N3C is a partnership among the NCATS-supported Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program hubs, the National Center for Data to Health (CD2H) (link is external), and NIGMS-supported Institutional Development Award Networks for Clinical and Translational Research (IDeA-CTR) which provides RWD related to COVID to the research community. • IU Health is the largest medical system in Indiana and has a vast database of electronic health records. These health records can be used to derive RWD. • Industry partners like Eli Lilly and Company provide researchers with new data through collaborative projects and analytical contracts. These data usually consist of clinical, assay, and molecular data. |
| Data Access | Per request and by contract. |
| Tech Capabilities | BHDS has considerable capabilities in a wide range of research areas including but not limited to data management, RWD, sequencing data analysis, clinical trial data, epidemiology, bioinformatics, machine learning, deep learning, survival analysis, time series data, dementia, cancer, HIV, genetics, genomics, multi-omics, epidemiology, medical record analysis, COVID, kidney disease, image analysis, and population health. |
| Projects |
BHDS has considerable capabilities in a wide range of research areas including but not limited to data management, RWD, sequencing data analysis, clinical trial data, epidemiology, bioinformatics, machine learning, deep learning, survival analysis, time series data, dementia, cancer, HIV, genetics, genomics, multi-omics, epidemiology, medical record analysis, COVID, kidney disease, image analysis, and population health. Faculty and staff of BHDS have accessibility to multiple real-world databases including OPTUM, All of US Research Program, National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C), Indiana Network of Patient Care, and Medicaid and Medicare data of Indiana. Faculty and staff of BHDS utilized these databases to conduct comparative effectiveness research, adverse drug event research, drug adherence research, and health outcome research. Faculty and staff of BHDS have disseminated real-world evidence and novel data mining methods on high-impact journals. The Target Enablement to Accelerate Therapy Development for Alzheimer’s Disease (TREAT-AD) drug discovery center aims to address challenges in discovering new therapeutic targets and drugs for the disease and accelerate development of promising new treatments. BHDS also contributes significantly to the TREAT-AD effort at IUSM. Specifically, members of the department analyze transcriptomic, proteomic, genetic, clinical, RWD, and imaging data to support the TREAT-AD project. Faculty at BHDS are an integral part of the Alcoholic Hepatitis Network, (AlcHepNet). With ten institutional partners, AlcHepNet is the largest research consortium in the nation on alcoholic hepatitis. It conducts a randomized clinical trial on alcoholic treatment, an observational study on the natural history of the disease, and it provides biosamples to ten translational research projects. The AlcHepNet Research Data Commons, currently under construction at Indiana University, will function as the central data repository. The International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) collects observational data representing over 2.2 million people living with and at risk for HIV, contributed by clinical centers and research groups in 44 countries. IeDEA data are organized into seven geographic regions and coordinated by centers for the Asia-Pacific, the Caribbean, Central and South America region, Central, East, Southern, and West Africa, and North America. IeDEA conducts both regional and global research. Our investigators use the IeDEA platform to share their multidisciplinary expertise and answer high-priority research questions. These include evaluating the HIV treatment cascade, co-infections like tuberculosis and hepatitis, cancers, and non-communicable diseases, including mental health and substance use disorders. The IeDEA community is composed of investigators, study coordinators, and data teams representing multiple countries, languages, and backgrounds. We meet regularly through interest-based Working Groups to guide our collaborative research projects. Numerous faculty members in BHDS are affiliated with the Precision Health Initiative (PHI). PHI was selected as the first recipient of funding from the Indiana University Grand Challenges Program, will transform biomedical research, health care innovations and the delivery of health interventions in Indiana. IU’s Precision Health Initiative will enhance the prevention, treatment, and health outcomes of human diseases through a more precise analysis of the genetic, developmental, behavioral and environmental factors that shape an individual’s health. Thus, precision health spans the full range of health promotion and disease prevention, as well as individualized treatment and recovery strategies. Specifically, the PHI aims to cure multiple myeloma, triple negative breast cancer, and pediatric sarcomas, prevent type two diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, grow research capabilities, and create new educational programs. |
| Future Focus | BHDS plans to increase its independent research footprint by increasing the number of departmental projects as lead investigator while still maintaining its diverse and wide-ranging support role to IUSM. |
| Talent Development | BHDS seeks new investigators through search and promotion, develops the current researchers through mentorship committees, promotes high school, undergraduate and graduate research activities. |
| Data Sharing Agreements | N/A |
| Programs/ Publications | N/A |
| Resources | See specific IUSM resources available on the Indiana University page |