TL09: New Challenges for Biostatisticians in Academic Medical Centers

Music City Center 

Many Biostatisticians in Academic Medical Centers have experienced an increase in requests for collaboration with medical students and clinicians in recent years. Multiple reasons account for this rise, such as new clinical questions sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the wider availability of rich healthcare datasets. Specific to students, the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 exam changed from numeric grades to pass/fail and has inspired many to pursue research productivity as a residency application differentiator. This increase in project volume adds to Biostatistics departments' existing challenges in staffing, funding, and operations. Attention is needed to maximize the benefit of shared Biostatistics resources and minimize research waste. We aim to summarize challenges facing Biostatistics departments, presenting existing and new practices of our center's Biostatistics Core in the context of trainee driven clinical research. We will share our successes and lessons learned in areas of education, collaboration, and prioritization. We will also bridge into new challenges with working with trainees in the era of Artificial Intelligence.

collaborative biostatistics

clinical research

academic medicine

statistical consulting 

Section on Statistical Consulting