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The History of the Biostatistics Unit
The Biostatistical Unit at St. Joseph's Healthcare was formed at the beginning of the calendar year 1995 when Dr. C.H. Goldsmith was appointed Head of Biostatistics. At that time he moved with his current staff (secretary and research associate) from Chedoke Hospital to St. Joseph's Healthcare at the location of 143 James St. South on the 6th floor. Dr. Goldsmith and his staff began providing biostatistical data management services, statistical analysis, research grant analysis, and consultation services at that time to a variety of researchers through St. Joseph's Healthcare as well as McMaster University.
The mandate of the Unit was to continue to be involved in a large spectrum of research projects which included projects associated with McMaster University, in particular the Faculty of Health Sciences, projects extra to McMaster University, projects carried out by faculty members associated with St. Joseph's Healthcare, as well as a variety of local, national and international educational ventures. These were not to change in the mix; however, new opportunities were to be pursued, with the primary focus on St. Joseph's Healthcare. In December, 1998, Dr. Stuart MacLeod, director of the Father Sean O'Sullivan Research Centre, circulated to all research areas within St. Joseph's Healthcare a listing of available "Biostatistical Support Services".
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Dr. A.R. Willan joined the Unit in September, 1997, and he brought on a staff person to be associated with his work, currently Dr. Gary Foster. As of July 1, 2002 Dr. Willan is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University.
Dr. L. Thabane joined the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University and, in particular, the Biostatistical Unit at the Centre for Evaluation of Medicines (CEM), associated with the Father Sean O'Sullivan Research Centre (FSORC), on January 1, 2002.
These three faculty-level biostatisticians have provided a variety of support and consulting services to a broad spectrum of people in the overall community, local health care agencies, health care researchers associated with St. Joseph's Healthcare in its broadest context, including the network of St. Joseph's Hospitals, faculty members at McMaster University, and the rest of the University, as well as outside projects. These three faculty members have been providing consulting services free of charge to researchers for initial consultations; however, research collaboration as a co-investigator was always to be the decision of the individual faculty member. General support services for data entry, data analysis, helping with writing manuscripts, editing of manuscripts and research grants has been a forefront of the Unit. Because of the technical skills required, computer expertise has rested with this Unit and Biostatistics is often called upon to provide support to other researchers at CEM in particular.
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A more detailed outline of the available services is provided in the summary of the current support services provided by the Unit.
While Dr. S.M. MacLeod was Chair of the Research Ethics Board (REB) associated with St. Joseph's Healthcare, the REB asked Dr. Goldsmith to become a member as of October 18, 1999. Dr. Goldsmith then further participated in all of the discussions of the Board meetings as well as the Board Subcommittee to evaluate the ethical principles associated with the research projects being conducted at St. Joseph's Healthcare. Dr. Goldsmith resigned from the REB Subcommittee at the end of December 2001 and Dr. Thabane came on board as an Observer until Dr. Goldsmith resigned from the main REB Committee at the end of June 2002. Dr. Thabane has taken over as a full Board member since July 1, 2002. Being visible on the REB has meant that a lot of consultations have come to the Biostatistical Unit from research projects associated with the investigators who brought forward ideas that may have been deficient in issues related to research methodology and biostatistics.
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