Biostatistical Consulting

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:

1. Grant submission/resubmission

2. IRB submission

3. Protocol review

4. Design for nongrant project/feasibility consultation

5. Education on a statistical topic

6. Analysis planning and advice

7. 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.

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
Website | Biosketch

Associate Directors

1. Rebecca Betensky, PhD; Professor of Biostatistics, HSPH
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

2. Paul Catalano, ScD; Senior Lecturer on Biostatistics, HSPH; Director, Biostatistics Core, DFCI
   Website | Biosketch

3. Dianne Finkelstein, PhD; Professor of Medicine, HMS; Professor in the Department of Biostatistics, HSPH; Director of Biostatistics, MGH Cancer Center
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

4. Shiva Gautam, PhD; Associate Professor of Medicine, HMS; Biostatistics Director, BIDMC
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

5. Shelley Hurwitz, PhD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS; Director of Biostatistics, Center for Clinical Investigation, BWH
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

6. Leslie Kalish, ScD; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, HMS; Director, Biostatistics Core, Clinical Research Program, CHB
   Profile | Biosketch

Biostatistics Consultants by Institution

Download NIH Biosketches

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (www.bidmc.harvard.edu)

1. Felipe Fregni, MD, PhD, MPH; Assistant Professor of Neurology, HMS;
   Director, Continuing Education, Scholars in Clinical Science Program, HMS;
   Director, Clinical Trials Network, BIDMC Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation
   Areas of expertise: Design, implementation, and analysis of clinical trials, particularly phase II clinical trials; grant and manuscript writing; meta-analysis
   Profile | Biosketch

2. 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
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

3. 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
   Profile | Biosketch

Brigham and Women's Hospital (www.brighamandwomens.org)

1. Jie Chen, PhD; Biostatistician, BWH Center for Clinical Investigation
   Areas of expertise: Survey research and research on health policy, diabetes, and women's health
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

2. Usha Govindarajulu, PhD; Instructor in Medicine, HMS; Biostatistician, BWH Center for Clinical Investigation
   Areas of expertise: Survival analysis; smoothing methods; occupational health; genetic epidemiology
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

3. 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
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

4. Hillary Keenan, PhD; Instructor in Medicine, HMS; Biostatistician, BWH Center for Clinical Investigation
   Areas of expertise: Population studies; statistical genetics; translation of laboratory research results into clinical study designs
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5. 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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6. Maria Shubina, DSc; Biostatistician, BWH Center for Clinical Investigation Areas of expertise: Venous thromboembolism; sleep medicine; medical informatics; statistical genetics; psychiatric research; bioassay analysis
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Children's Hospital Boston (www.childrenshospital.org)

1. 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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2. 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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3. 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
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

4. 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
   Profile | Biosketch

5. 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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6. Clarissa Valim, MD, ScD; Instructor in Surgery, HMS; Senior Biostatistician, Biostatistics Core, CHB Clinical Research Program
   Areas of expertise: Study design and analysis of clinical trials and observational studies, particularly focused on infectious and surgical diseases
   Profile | Biosketch

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-farber.org)

1. Paul Catalano, ScD; Senior Lecturer on Biostatistics, HSPH; Director, DFCI Biostatistics Core
   Areas of expertise: Cancer-related clinical translational research
   Website | Biosketch

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (www.harvardpilgrim.org)

1. 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
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

Harvard School of Public Health (www.hsph.harvard.edu)

1. 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
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

2. 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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3. 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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4. 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
   Website | Biosketch

Massachusetts General Hospital (www.massgeneral.org)

1. 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
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

2. Douglas Hayden, PhD; Biostatistician, MGH
   Areas of expertise: Extensions of frequentist inference and methods for microarray gene expression analysis
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3. Hang Lee, PhD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS; Assistant Biostatistician, MGH Biostatistics Center
   Areas pf 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
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

4. Eric Macklin, PhD; Instructor in Medicine, HMS; Assistant in Biostatistics, 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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5. Alona Muzikansky, MA; Biostatistician, MGH
   Areas of expertise: Design, conduct, and analysis of clinical trials for neuro-oncology and neurodegenerative diseases
   Biosketch

6. Kerrie Nelson, PhD; Biostatistician, MGH
   Areas of expertise: Development and application of statistical methods for analyzing correlated and longitudinal data; inter-rater agreement and multiple testing in genetic studies
   Profile

7. Sowmya Rao, PhD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS; Biostatistician, MGH
   Areas of expertise: Health services research
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8. 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
   Profile | Website | Biosketch

9. Mark Vangel, PhD; Assistant Professor of Radiology, HMS; Biomedical Imaging Core, MGH
   Areas of expertise: Statistical methods for neuroimaging
   Profile | Website | Biosketch