Modern Issues And Methods In Biostatistics

Classic biostatistics, a branch of statistical science, has as its main focus the applications of statistics in public health, the life sciences, and the pharmaceutical industry. Modern biostatistics, beyond just a simple application of statistics, is a confluence of statistics and knowledge of multiple intertwined fields. The application demands, the advancements in computer technology, and the rapid growth of life science data (e.g., genomics data) have promoted the formation of modern biostatistics. There are at least three characteristics of modern biostatistics: (1) in-depth engagement in the application fields that require penetration of knowledge across several fields, (2) high-level complexity of data because they are longitudinal, incomplete, or latent because they are heterogeneous due to a mixture of data or experiment types, because of high-dimensionality, which may make meaningful reduction impossible, or because of extremely small or large size; and (3) dynamics, the speed of development in methodology and analyses, has to match the fast growth of data with a constantly changing face. This book is written for researchers, biostatisticians/statisticians, and scientists who are interested in quantitative analyses. The goal is to introduce modern methods in biostatistics and help researchers and students quickly grasp key concepts and methods. Many methods can solve the same problem and many problems can be solved by the same method, which becomes apparent when those topics are discussed in this single volume.

This book brings together the voices of leading experts in the frontiers of biostatistics, biomedicine, and the health sciences to discuss the statistical procedures, useful methods, and novel applications in biostatistics research. It also includes discussions of potential future directions of biomedicine and new statistical developments for health research, with the intent of stimulating research and fostering the interactions of scholars across health research related disciplines. Topics covered include: Health data analysis and applications to EHR data Clinical trials, FDR, and applications in health science Big network analytics and its applications in GWAS Survival analysis and functional data analysis Graphical modelling in genomic studies The book will be valuable to data scientists and statisticians who are working in biomedicine and health, other practitioners in the health sciences, and graduate students and researchers in biostatistics and health.

This book provides an overview of the emerging topics in biostatistical theories and methods through their applications to evidence-based global health research and decision-making. It brings together some of the top scholars engaged in biostatistical method development on global health to highlight and describe recent advances in evidence-based global health applications. The volume is composed of five main parts: data harmonization and analysis; systematic review and statistical meta-analysis; spatial-temporal modeling and disease mapping; Bayesian statistical modeling; and statistical methods for longitudinal data or survival data. It is designed to be illuminating and valuable to both expert biostatisticians and to health researchers engaged in methodological applications in evidence-based global health research. It is particularly relevant to countries where global health research is being rigorously conducted.

Inspired by the Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, Second Edition, this volume outlines the statistical tools for successfully working with modern life and health sciences research Data collection holds an essential part in dictating the future of health sciences and public health, as the compilation of statistics allows researchers and medical practitioners to monitor trends in health status, identify health problems, and evaluate the impact of health policies and programs. Methods and Applications of Statistics in the Life and Health Sciences serves as a single, one-of-a-kind resource on the wide range of statistical methods, techniques, and applications that are applied in modern life and health sciences in research. Specially designed to present encyclopedic content in an accessible and self-contained format, this book outlines thorough coverage of the underlying theory and standard applications to research in related disciplines such as biology, epidemiology, clinical trials, and public health. Uniquely combining established literature with cutting-edge research, this book contains classical works and more than twenty-five new articles and completely revised contributions from the acclaimed Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, Second Edition. The result is a compilation of more than eighty articles that explores classic methodology and new topics, including: Sequential methods in biomedical research Statistical measures of human quality of life Change-point methods in genetics Sample size determination for clinical trials Mixed-effects regression models for predicting pre-clinical disease Probabilistic and statistical models for conception Statistical methods are explored and applied to population growth, disease detection and treatment, genetic and genomic research, drug development, clinical trials, screening and prevention, and the assessment of rehabilitation, recovery, and quality of life. These topics are explored in contributions written by more than 100 leading academics, researchers, and practitioners who utilize various statistical practices, such as election bias, survival analysis, missing data techniques, and cluster analysis for handling the wide array of modern issues in the life and health sciences. With its combination of traditional methodology and newly developed research, Methods and Applications of Statistics in the Life and Health Sciences has everything students, academics, and researchers in the life and health sciences need to build and apply their knowledge of statistical methods and applications.

This book presents a multidisciplinary survey of biostatics methods, each illustrated with hands-on examples. It introduces advanced methods in statistics, including how to choose and work with statistical packages. Specific topics of interest include microarray analysis, missing data techniques, power and sample size, statistical methods in genetics. The book is an essential resource for researchers at every level of their career.

The book aims to provide both comprehensive reviews of the classical methods and an introduction to new developments in medical statistics. The topics range from meta analysis, clinical trial design, causal inference, personalized medicine to machine learning and next generation sequence analysis. Since the publication of the first edition, there have been tremendous advances in biostatistics and bioinformatics. The new edition tries to cover as many important emerging areas and reflect as much progress as possible. Many distinguished scholars, who greatly advanced their research areas in statistical methodology as well as practical applications, also have revised several chapters with relevant updates and written new ones from scratch.The new edition has been divided into four sections, including, Statistical Methods in Medicine and Epidemiology, Statistical Methods in Clinical Trials, Statistical Genetics, and General Methods. To reflect the rise of modern statistical genetics as one of the most fertile research areas since the publication of the first edition, the brand new section on Statistical Genetics includes entirely new chapters reflecting the state of the art in the field.Although tightly related, all the book chapters are self-contained and can be read independently. The book chapters intend to provide a convenient launch pad for readers interested in learning a specific topic, applying the related statistical methods in their scientific research and seeking the newest references for in-depth research.

In addition to learning how to apply classic statistical methods, students need to understand when these methods perform well, and when and why they can be highly unsatisfactory. Modern Statistics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences illustrates how to use R to apply both standard and modern methods to correct known problems with classic techniques. Numerous illustrations provide a conceptual basis for understanding why practical problems with classic methods were missed for so many years, and why modern techniques have practical value. Designed for a two-semester, introductory course for graduate students in the social sciences, this text introduces three major advances in the field: Early studies seemed to suggest that normality can be assumed with relatively small sample sizes due to the central limit theorem. However, crucial issues were missed. Vastly improved methods are now available for dealing with non-normality. The impact of outliers and heavy-tailed distributions on power and our ability to obtain an accurate assessment of how groups differ and variables are related is a practical concern when using standard techniques, regardless of how large the sample size might be. Methods for dealing with this insight are described. The deleterious effects of heteroscedasticity on conventional ANOVA and regression methods are much more serious than once thought. Effective techniques for dealing heteroscedasticity are described and illustrated. Requiring no prior training in statistics, Modern Statistics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences provides a graduate-level introduction to basic, routinely used statistical techniques relevant to the social and behavioral sciences. It describes and illustrates methods developed during the last half century that deal with known problems associated with classic techniques. Espousing the view that no single method is always best, it imparts a general understanding of the relative merits of various techniques so that the choice of method can be made in an informed manner.

Routine applications of advanced statistical methods on real data have become possible in the last ten years because desktop computers have become much more powerful and cheaper. However, proper understanding of the challenging statistical theory behind those methods remains essential for correct application and interpretation, and rarely seen in the medical literature. Modern Methods for Epidemiology provides a concise introduction to recent development in statistical methodologies for epidemiological and biomedical researchers. Many of these methods have become indispensible tools for researchers working in epidemiology and medicine but are rarely discussed in details by standard textbooks of biostatistics or epidemiology. Contributors of this book are experienced researchers and experts in their respective fields. This textbook provides a solid starting point for those who are new to epidemiology, and for those looking for guidance in more modern statistical approaches to observational epidemiology. Epidemiological and biomedical researchers who wish to overcome the mathematical barrier of applying those methods to their research will find this book an accessible and helpful reference for self-learning and research. This book is also a good source for teaching postgraduate students in medical statistics or epidemiology.