Core C: Data Management and Statistics Core

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ABSTRACT This ADRC has comprehensive and demanding translational research objectives, for which the Data Management and Statistical (DMS) Core must be able to efficiently collect, validate, integrate, and derive meaning from a complex array of data. Our key questions about diagnosis, clinical features, natural history, interactions between genotype and phenotype, biomarkers, clinico-pathological relationships, and connections between brain changes and neurobehavioral disturbances can only be addressed with sophisticated and comprehensive data structures, and with the support of a cohesive team of expert statistical faculty. To facilitate this process, the DMS Core will incorporate a number of innovative tools that will enable our researchers to better identify and integrate high-quality multilevel data collected through this ADRC, while linking data with other resources at UCSF and beyond. Historically, the UCSF Memory and Aging Center (MAC) has shown national leadership in developing neurology-specific data management and analytic systems that integrate a wealth of information from a variety of sources in order to better understand the etiology and treatment of dementia syndromes and promote translational research. This DMS Core would be uniquely positioned to make a national impact on key NIH goals by making tools available to the ADRC network that are designed to facilitate and accelerate the research process for investigators. Finally, we have assembled a superb team of faculty from the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department who will provide high quality analytic consultation and education for our investigators. Overall, this DMS Core will combine our center’s solid two-decade foundation of excellent data management and UDS submission practices, with tools enhancing representation and analysis of multiple levels of neurological information, as well as experienced statistical guidance that allows investigators to effectively model complex patterns and associations in our patients. We have structured this core ensure that these exemplary data management and research methods are effectively coordinated among the multidisciplinary cores of this ADRC, freeing investigators to pursue the answers that will most powerfully impact dementia research and treatment.