Biostatistics and Data Management Core

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Each of the three Research Projects proposed by the Uganda-UCSF Consortium on Prevention and Early Detection of HIV-associated Cancer involves prospective field-based data collection. Each also features the need for biostatistical analysis. Because the Consortium recognizes the importance of data management and biostatistical analysis to research and wishes to transfer relevant technology and approaches to Africa, it will create one shared and efficient resource core for these purposes. The Data Management and Biostatistical Analysis Core (DMBAC) of the Uganda-UCSF Consortium will have the following specific aims: Aim 1. Provide expertise and a common platform for primary data collection and data management. The DMBAC will leverage the expertise in data management built at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF over the past two decades and transfer it to the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) in Uganda for the support of our three Research Projects and any pilot projects funded by the Consortium. Aim 2. Offer project-specific biostatistical support both during the planning of new research and during the analysis of ongoing studies as well as specialized biostatistical instruction to our emerging Ugandan principal investigators. By offering assistance from faculty-level biostatisticians who are familiar with the substantive aspects of HIV-associated malignancies, the DMBAC will ensure that the 3 Research Projects and any relevant pilot projects are designed and analyzed using the most appropriate biostatistical strategies. Periodic didactic instruction in specialized analytical techniques will allow the emerging Ugandan scientists to keep abreast with current methods and be conversant with biostatisticians. At the end of the 5-year funding period, the DMBAC will have provided support in data management and biostatistical analysis to each of the three Research Projects and all pilot projects that are borne from the consortium. It will have also transferred relevant technology and skills from specialists at UCSF to colleagues in Uganda. Finally, and equally important, it will have also given the emerging Ugandan principal investigators a critical opportunity to interact with and form professional relationships with some of their most important allies — data managers and biostatisticians. These relationships and the best practices derived from them will give the emerging Uganda scientists the solid foundation they need for rest of their career.