Consulting Programs

Biostatistical Consulting Drawing on a team of highly skilled biostatisticians from the Harvard academic and hospital community, the Biostatistics Consultation Program offers free statistical consultations to researchers as they launch new clinical translation projects.

Harvard Catalyst Biostatistical Consulting Program

The Harvard Catalyst Biostatistical Consulting Program, funded by the National Institutes of Health, supports Harvard investigators undertaking clinical and translational research. Drawing on a team of highly skilled biostatisticians from the Harvard academic medical and hospital community, the program offers consultations and expertise on a range of relevant areas to researchers as they launch new clinical and translation projects. The program also promotes the development and mentoring of Harvard Catalyst biostatisticians, as well as biostatistical training for clinical investigators.

Statistical services focus on clinical and translational projects in the early stages of development. These services include the following:

  • Grant submission/resubmission

  • IRB submission

  • Protocol review

  • Design for nongrant project/feasibility consultation

  • Education on a statistical topic

  • Analysis planning and advice

  • Assistance with response to a manuscript/journal reviewer

To learn about educational opportunities in biostatistics, including colloquia and seminars, please visit the Biostatistics Training page and the Biostatistics Seminar Series page.

Biostatistical Consultation Form

To request a Catalyst biostatistical consultation, please complete and submit this webform.

Please request a consultation well before your deadline.  Your request may be refused if there is insufficient time to provide useful advice.

Program Director:

James Ware, PhD, Frederick Mosteller Professor of Biostatistics, HSPH
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Associate Directors:

  • Rebecca Betensky, PhD; Professor of Biostatistics, HSPH
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  • Paul Catalano, ScD; Senior Lecturer on Biostatistics, HSPH; Director, Biostatistics Core, DFCI
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  • Dianne Finkelstein, PhD; Professor of Medicine, HMS; Professor in the Department of Biostatistics, HSPH; Director of Biostatistics, MGH Cancer Center
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  • Murray Mittleman, MDCM, MPH, DPH; Associate Professor of Medicine, HMS; Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, HSPH
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  • Shelley Hurwitz, PhD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS; Director of Biostatistics, Center for Clinical Investigation, BWH
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  • Leslie Kalish, ScD; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, HMS; Director, Biostatistics Core, Clinical Research Program, CHB
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Biostatistics Consultants by Institution

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

  • Roger Davis, ScD; Associate Professor of Medicine, HMS; Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics, HSPH; Principal Biostatistician in the Division of General Medicine, BIDMC
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  • Shiva Gautam, PhD; Associate Professor of Medicine, HMS; BIDMC Biostatistics Director
    Areas of expertise: Categorical data analysis; statistical methods in medical research, including cancer and obstructive sleep apnea
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  • Michele Hacker, MSPH, ScD; Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, HMS; Instructor of Epidemiology, HSPH; Director, Program in Epidemiologic Research, BIDMC
    Areas of expertise: Obstetrics and gynecology, with an emphasis on pregnancy outcomes; assisted reproductive technology; antepartum and intrapartum complications and medical education; bleeding and clotting disorders, especially hemophilia and inherited thrombophilias
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  • Murray Mittleman, MDCM, MPH, DPH; Associate Professor of Medicine, HMS; Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, HSPH
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  • Long Ngo, PhD; Assistant Professor, HMS
    Areas of expertise:  Longitudinal analysis; model selection; semiparametric models; air pollution studies; competing risks; biomarker studies in delirium research and sepsis studies; diagnostic accuracy problems in radiology; analysis of large secondary databases
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  • Caterina Stamoulis, PhD, MS, SB; Instructor in Neurology, HMS
    Areas of expertise: Neurodegenerative diseases, ALS, epilepsy, and MS; autism with an emphasis on the motor system; quantitative signal and image analysis methods and modeling of propagation of neuronal activity in the brain; quantitative methods for analysis of genome-wide data in brain cancers, ALS, and autism
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Brigham and Women's Hospital

  • Shelley Hurwitz, PhD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS; Director of Biostatistics, BWH Center for Clinical Investigation
    Areas of expertise: Endocrinology research; behavioral and psychosocial research; patient-oriented physiologic research; research on AIDS and cancer; grant writing; clinical trials; power analysis; survival analysis; longitudinal analysis
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  • Rie Maurer, MS; Research Associate in Medicine, HMS; Biostatistician, BWH Center for Clinical Investigation
    Areas of expertise: Gastroenterology and hepatology research; clinical trials; study design; survival analysis
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Children's Hospital Boston

  • Henry Feldman, PhD; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, HMS; Principal Biostatistician, Biostatistics Core, CHB Clinical Research Program
    Areas of expertise: Clinical and community trials; epidemiological surveys; experiments in human and animal physiology; studies in cellular and biochemical kinetics; methods for experimental design, data analysis, and mathematical modeling
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  • Peter Forbes, MA; Senior Biostatistician, Biostatistics Core, CHB Clinical Research Program
    Areas of expertise: Analysis of longitudinal data; sample design; statistical graphics
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  • Chao-Yu Guo, PhD; Lecturer on Pediatrics; HMS; Senior Biostatistician, Biostatistics Core, CHB Clinical Research Program
    Areas of expertise: Epidemiological research; cross-sectional and longitudinal studies; clinical research, especially genetic studies; statistical methodology, including family-based linkage, association studies, and missing-data patterns in genetic studies
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  • Leslie Kalish, ScD; Associate Professor of Pediatrics; HMS; Director, Biostatistics Core, CHB Clinical Research Program
    Areas of expertise: Design, implementation, and analysis of clinical investigations, primarily in transfusion medicine; pediatric diseases, including HIV and other infectious diseases, and cystic fibrosis; hematology; emergency and alternative medicine
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  • Paul Mitchell, MS; Senior Biostatistician, Biostatistics Core, CHB Clinical Research Program
    Areas of expertise: Clinical trials, multicenter longitudinal studies, and survey research, with a current focus on nutrition and gastroenterology
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Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

  • Paul Catalano, ScD; Senior Lecturer on Biostatistics, HSPH; Director, DFCI Biostatistics Core
    Areas of expertise: Cancer-related clinical translational research
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Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

  • Ken Kleinman, ScD; Associate Professor, Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, HMS and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
    Areas of expertise: Correlated or clustered data, including cluster randomized trials, multilevel models, and longitudinal repeated measurements; spatial surveillance and evaluation; epidemiologic methods; communication of statistical results
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Harvard School of Public Health

  • Rebecca Betensky, PhD; Professor of Biostatistics
    Areas of expertise: Analysis of censored and truncated time to event data; design and analysis of studies with complex sampling; model-based clustering of high-dimensional data
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  • E. Andrés Houseman, SD; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biostatistics
    Areas of expertise: Statistical methods for molecular epidemiology, especially computationally efficient latent variable and clustering methods to manage high- dimensional data; cancer epigenetics
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  • Mathis Thoma, PhD; Director of Operations, Program on Quantitative Sciences in Medicine, Department of Biostatistics
    Areas of expertise: Statistical methods related to drug discovery (compound and target screening, biochemical and cellular assays) and early development (animal pharmacology, toxicology); methods for experimental design and data analysis
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  • James Ware, PhD; Frederick Mosteller Professor of Biostatistics
    Areas of expertise: Statistical methods for the design and analysis of longitudinal studies and clinical trials; cardiology, asthma, and, more broadly, chronic disease research
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Massachusetts General Hospital

  • Dianne Finkelstein, PhD; Professor of Medicine, HMS; Professor in the Department of Biostatistics, HSPH; Director of Biostatistics, MGH Cancer Center
    Areas of expertise: Development of semiparametric methodology for analyzing the effect of covariates on failure time distributions arising in cancer and AIDS epidemiologic studies and clinical trials; methods for analyzing longitudinal and survival outcomes; animal carcinogenicity experiments
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  • Douglas Hayden, PhD; Biostatistician, MGH Biostatistics Center
    Areas of expertise: Extensions of frequentist inference and methods for microarray gene expression analysis
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  • Hang Lee, PhD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS; Biostatistician, MGH Biostatistics Center
    Areas of expertise: Design, conduct, and analysis of cancer clinical trials, vaccine clinical trials, physiologic clinical trials, and genetic epidemiology; analysis of longitudinal data and correlated outcomes
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  • Eric Macklin, PhD; Instructor in Medicine, HMS; Biostatistician, MGH Department of Medicine
    Areas of expertise: Design and analysis of clinical trials, particularly of rare diseases; analysis of longitudinal and categorical data
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  • Alona Muzikansky, MA; Biostatistician, MGH Biostatistics Center
    Areas of expertise: Design, conduct, and analysis of clinical trials for neuro-oncology and neurodegenerative diseases
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  • Kerrie Nelson, PhD; Biostatistician, MGH Biostatistics Center
    Areas of expertise: Development and application of statistical methods for analyzing correlated and longitudinal data; inter-rater agreement and multiple testing in genetic studies
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  • Sowmya Rao, PhD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS; Biostatistician, MGH Biostatistics Center
    Areas of expertise: Health services research
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  • David Schoenfeld, PhD; Professor of Medicine, HMS; Professor in the Department of Biostatistics, HSPH; Director, Biostatistics Center, MGH
    Areas of expertise: Design and conduct of clinical trials of new drugs and devices; studies involving the use of gene arrays to predict patient's outcome after trauma
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  • Michael Silver, MS; Biostatistician, MGH Biostatistics Center
  • Mark Vangel, PhD; Assistant Professor of Radiology, HMS; Biomedical Imaging Core, MGH
    Areas of expertise: Statistical methods for neuroimaging
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  • Rui Wang, PhD; Instructor in Medicine, HMS; Biostatistician, MGH Biostatistics Center; Research Associate, HSPH
    Areas of expertise: Design and analysis of longitudinal studies and clinical trials; HIV; cancer; analysis of failure time data; meta-analysis
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  • Hui Zheng, PhD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS; Biostatistician, MGH Biostatistics Center
    Areas of expertise: Clinical/epidemiological: Diabetes; GI cancer; anesthesia; HIV/AIDS; quality-of-care outcomes research. Statistical: Design, conduct, and analysis of clinical trials; Bayesian hierarchical modeling; survey sampling; longitudinal and survival data analysis; missing data
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