Two years after the foundation of the institute, the Department of Biometry and Data Management has been established in 1983. In the beginning exclusively intended as a service unit supporting the other departments in planning, realising and evaluating epidemiological studies and ensuring an efficient IT infrastructure and database administration it soon evolved into a department working on questions regarding methods and contents. Besides the indispensable IT services (see Unit IT, Data Management and Medical Documentation) the department emphasises on harnessing and developing biometric methods for epidemiological issues. The Department of Biometry and Data Management also houses the health monitoring team (Cancer Registry, Bremen Mortality Index).
The institute has been in the position to assemble biometricians experienced in a wide range of epidemiological studies (case control, cohort, cross-sectional, longitudinal, incidence studies, etc.) as permanent staff. For specific research projects, a number of short-term employees as well as postgraduate students (usually financed by third parties) extend the range of methods employed in the department. In this context the department also offers the opportunity to write a PhD thesis.
We are presently working on diverse topics: these include statistical issues related to the pharmacoepidemiologic research database (twophase studies, control for confounding - refer to Unit Statistical Methods in Pharmacoepidemiology), improvement of statistical procedures in the analysis of gene-gene- and gene-environment interactions and the identification of biological pathways involved in the development of diseases (Unit Genetic Epidemiology and Bioinformatics), statistical modelling of nutrition data and use of geographical information systems in epidemiologic studies (Unit Statistical Models in Epidemiology).
The department also houses a methods consultancy service that is used BIPS-internally as well as externally by other research institutions and scientifically working clinicians, primarily from Bremen and the surrounding region. Support is mainly requested in the planning phase of studies e.g. on the selection of the study design or on sample size calculations. Appropriate analysis methods are proposed and/or developed and support in the application of methods as well as in the interpretation and presentation of results is provided.
The department is responsible to provide an efficient IT infrastructure for the whole institute. It also develops tools and methods for the implementation of epidemiological studies. Maintenance, administration and activation of the institute's data stock is another responsibility as well as supporting the other departments in planning and carrying out studies. Tools and know how from the fields of data management and medical documentation are shared with external partners in the conduct of common projects. The Unit IT, Data Management and Medical Documentation is responsible for this area of work. The team is comprised of computer specialists and medical documentalists.
The list shows only projects for which the department has the main scientific responsibility. It only includes those projects that are currently running or that ended less than a year ago. The entries are sorted alphabetically.