The CTSI’s Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Research Design (BERD) program provides researchers with comprehensive support in designing and carrying out research at the design, implementation, and analysis stages. As biostatistics assistance ranks among the top requests for CTSA services, BERD has generated a portfolio of solutions for the most common needs to ensure participation in the earliest stages of study development.

• BERD consulting services and collaboration are available to all BU investigators free of charge for the first hour. Junior faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and residents are eligible for additional consultation depending upon the nature and scope of the project. This, however, does not include consultation on student projects beyond an initial consultation. We will assist in connecting students to student analysts from graduate programs at Boston University in Biostatistics and Statistics.

BERD Highlights

• Monthly seminars on a variety of topics
• Weekly Study Design and Statistical Analysis Studios: drop-in sessions where investigators can receive assistance with research study design, design of data collection systems and instruments, data entry and validation, data management and quality assurance, statistical analysis, and data interpretation, and professional and scientific report writing.
• Creation of the BERD software toolkit which includes REDCap and other research data management tools and resources.
• Collaboration through the New England Research Institute (NERI) in a large number of diverse multicenter trials and observational studies (e.g., the interplay of genetics and environment on the development of disease traits).
• Addition of new areas of statistical design and analysis such as adaptive trial design and network-based analyses of cell-line data (e.g., stem cell studies using iPSC cell lines)
• Cross-departmental collaboration, e.g., BERD staff work closely with colleagues from the CTSI Informatics Program to develop statistical models for use with the “HOME cell” and the Regulatory Knowledge and Support Program to pre-review IRB proposals before they undergo full board review.