Statistics:

Center for Biomathematics
Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center

The Center for Biomathematics within the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University provides statistical and mathematical modeling help in clinical and basic science research inside as well as outside Pediatrics.  The center aims to be involved with researchers from the outset, helping to design studies so as to have adequate statistical power to answer the posed questions and test the stated hypotheses, and analyzing the collected data with appropriate statistical procedures.

Within Pediatrics, the center collaborates actively with Child and Adolescent Health and with Immunology.  Outside the department, work is ongoing with Preventive Medicine and Nutrition in the Department of Medicine, with the Institute of Human Nutrition, with the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (CTSA), with the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, with the Department of Emergency Medicine, and with investigators outside Columbia University. The center has developed cufunctions, a statistical analysis package for R, to enable clinical researchers to be self-sufficient in analyzing their data.

Dr. Rajasekhar Ramakrishnan, Director of the Center, teaches in the graduate program in the Institute of Human Nutrition.  He is the biostatistician in the Clinical Research Resource (CRR) at CUMC's CTSA, and has coordinated a clinical research rotation for Medicine and Pediatrics residents in the CRR. He teaches the cufunctions package in a 4x3-hour course.

Steve Holleran, a long-time member of the center but now retired, did much of the programming for the cufunctions package. He is an amateur pianist, and an avid chamber music player.