{"id":2519,"date":"2025-02-05T14:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/?p=2519"},"modified":"2026-01-14T09:40:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T14:40:39","slug":"using-statistical-analysis-to-find-rheumatological-cures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/using-statistical-analysis-to-find-rheumatological-cures\/","title":{"rendered":"Using statistical analysis to find rheumatological cures"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Caitlin Reidy (COM`25)<\/h6>\n

A group of Boston University graduate students are working to find a cure for rheumatoid diseases like Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis\u2014not through lab research, but through pharmaceutical partnerships and statistics.<\/p>\n

The students are part of the\u00a0<\/span>Masters in Statistical Practice Program<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(MSSP) practicum course, an intensive hands-on experience where students learn about statistical theory, methods, computation, and data analysis, while simultaneously applying their classroom learning in the real world\u2014through consulting projects with industry partners.<\/p>\n

For the lupus disease project, the students have been analyzing statistical data for\u00a0<\/span>Alira Health<\/a>\u2014a global health firm that aims to humanize healthcare through technology\u2014using records from\u00a0<\/span>FORWARD<\/a>\u2014a non-profit patient-reported databank for rheumatic disorders\u2014to understand how patients behave, what types of treatments do and do not work, what side effects patients encounter, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe dig into the data comprised of various datasets and provide any insights we can find,\u201d said Mingrui Du (GRS`25), a third-semester student in the MSSP program who got involved in the project during her first-year practicum and now works as an intern for FORWARD. \u201cI\u2019m applying the skills I\u2019ve developed to solve real-world problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Masters in Statistical Practice students have been analyzing statistical data for Alira Health using data from FORWARD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The students are mentored by\u00a0<\/span>Fotios Kokkotos<\/a>, a professor of practice in Mathematics & Statistics who spent 30 years as a statistical consultant for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. He says this hands-on learning enables students to develop a portfolio of research projects, build contacts and connections, and develop the skills they\u2019ll need after graduation, while also giving industry partners access to free problem-solving sessions and statistical application consulting.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Fotios Kokkotos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The students are mentored by\u00a0<\/span>Fotios Kokkotos<\/a>, a professor of practice in Mathematics & Statistics who spent 30 years as a statistical consultant for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. He says this hands-on learning enables students to develop a portfolio of research projects, build contacts and connections, and develop the skills they\u2019ll need after graduation, while also giving industry partners access to free problem-solving sessions and statistical application consulting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kokkotos said that Alira and Forward were so pleased with the MSSP Consulting team\u2019s work that renewed their contract with BU for a second year. They also hired two students for the summer and kept them on as interns during the fall semester.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Mingrui Du (GRS`25)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Du, one of the\u00a0<\/span>interns<\/a>, says she is grateful for \u201cevery chance to accept requests, absorb new knowledge, analyze data, and adopt applicable solutions,\u201d and feels that she is growing as a statistician as she delves into the data.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe database I\u2019m now working on has a very long history\u2014it\u2019s much older than my age. So, it feels like it has a process, has growth, almost like a human. There\u2019s a phase when the data bank grows, and then it thrives, just like young people, like it can provide a lot of insight.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MSSP students partner with healthcare organizations to apply statistical analysis to rheumatology research and better understand patient outcomes and treatments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2519"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3358,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions\/3358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}