Vanderbilt Department of Biostatistics

Welcome to the Department of Biostatistics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center!

The department was founded in 2003, tasked with the mission of bringing biostatistical expertise to the Vanderbilt community. With the unflagging support of the School of Medicine, and the diligence and creativity of our faculty and staff, we fulfill our mission daily: engaging in cutting-edge statistical methodology research, providing collaborative support and educational resources for biomedical and basic science researchers across the university, and training a new generation of biostatisticians.

Today, the department stands poised to enter a new era: the era of big data, in which biostatisticians are challenged to expand their skills and knowledge beyond traditional statistical modeling and inference, to the broader tasks of bringing order to enormous quantities of structured and unstructured data, and to find the patterns and make the predictions that support the promise of precision medicine.

We are excited to embrace the opportunities of this new era, and look forward to meeting each new challenge, together.

Yu Shyr, PhD, Dr(hc), FASA, FAAAS, FAACR
Professor and Chair

Yu Shyr welcomes department members to the renovated 10th floor space for Vanderbilt biostatistics

 

Events and Opportunities

On Wednesday, September 28, from noon to 2:00 p.m., the Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center is hosting the hybrid InformaticCon. Presenters include research assistant professor Cheryl L. Gatto on supporting pragmatic trials and lead biostatistician Henry Domenico on AI in healthcare. Here's the program: InformaticCon 2022. Sign-ups for the on-site location are closed, so planning on virtual attendance is your best bet (see the DBMI events page for the Zoom link).

Also on September 28, we welcome Johns Hopkins' Nilanjan Chatterjee to our weekly seminar at 1:30 p.m. See below for details.

On Friday, September 30, at 10:00 a.m. CDT, PhD candidate Michael L. Williams will defend his dissertation, "Using Electronic Health Record Derived Medication Data for Population Pharmacokinetic Studies." Click the link to view details for the defense, which will be held on campus as well as transmitted online.

Our weekly Wednesday seminar series is in full swing! On September 28, Nilanjan Chatterjee, professor of biostatistics and oncology at Johns Hopkins, will speak on Generalized Methods of Moments for Data Integration Across Disparate Studies. Dr. Chatterjee models disease risk associated with genetic, lifestyle, biomarkers. and other factors, with the goal of improving disease prevention. His research interests are big data, cancer epidemiology and prevention, cancer genetics, epidemiologic study designs, genetic association studies, gene-environment interactions, risk prediction, and statistical genetics. He was the 2011 winner of the prestigious COPSS Presidents' Award.

On October 5, our own Bryan Shepherd will present on Multiwave validation sampling for error-prone electronic health records. Dr. Shepherd is an ASA Fellow, vice chair of faculty affairs, and co-PI of the Vanderbilt-Nigeria Biostatistics Training Program, amid numerous other roles and responsibilities.

For virtual access to our Wednesday seminars, contact Jena Altstatt. Department members have the opportunity to meet with speakers (the sign-up link is sent with the event invitation). 

Our department members also present lectures and workshops around the world. Upcoming presentations include Ben French at Brown University, Yu Shyr and Mario Davidson in Santa Monica, and more.