Biostatistics/Epidemiology Core

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STUDY DESCRIPTION/ABSTRACT Despite a focus on the clinical management of HIV-1 and HIV-1 associated malignancies, the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and the Zambia Cancer Diseases Hospital (CDH) in Lusaka currently lack research infrastructure and expertise for epidemiology and biostatistics. Thus, the establishment of a Biostatistics and Epidemiology Core facility is essential to support the training, research, and capacity-building emphasis of the proposed Zambia AIDS Malignancies Diagnosis and Pathogenesis Program (ZAMDAPP). Such a core is critical in the design of high quality research studies that are precise, accurate, and rigorous. The service provided by the core will include consultation in study design concepts, establishing study size to achieve statistical power, data management practices and quality controls, and statistical analysis of complex data sets to answer current and future research questions. These services will be provided to the two consortium- supported research projects as essential elements of successful project implementation. It will also be imparted to Zambian trainees and to the recipients of ZAMDAPP pilot projects, and ultimately to all cancer researchers at UTH and CDH, an overall goal of expanding Zambian research infrastructure and expertise. As such, the goals of the core are to provide experimental design and implementation support in developmental phases for the research projects and pilot projects and meet data analysis needs of the research and future pilot projects, including: statistical data analyses, descriptive analysis, hypothesis testing, estimations, modeling, generation of statistical reports, development of materials for presentation, and publication of study findings. Finally, the core will prioritize training and skills transfer by organizing workshops related to relevant biostatistics and epidemiological needs in cancer research and HIV-1 associated malignancies, by conducting regular meetings, facilitate progress with data collection, quality controls and analysis, and by contributing to the Career Enhancement Core by providing expertise, resources and facilitation for peer-to-peer mentoring sessions focused on epidemiology and biostatistics.