Abstract
Collaborative biostatistics faculty (CBF) are increasingly valued by academic health centers (AHCs) for their role in increasing success rates of grants and publications, and educating medical students and clinical researchers. Some AHCs have a biostatistics department that consists of only biostatisticians focused on methodological research, collaborative research, and education. Others may have a biostatistics unit within an interdisciplinary department, or statisticians recruited into clinical departments. Within each model, there is also variability in environment, influenced by the chair's background, research focus of colleagues, type of students taught, funding sources, and whether the department is in a medical school or school of public health. CBF appointments may be tenure track or nontenure, and expectations for promotion may vary greatly depending on the type of department, track, and the AHC. In this article, the authors identify strategies for developing early-stage CBFs in four domains: (1) Influence of department/environment, (2) Skills to develop, (3) Ways to increase productivity, and (4) Ways to document accomplishments. Graduating students and postdoctoral fellows should consider the first domain when choosing a faculty position. Early-stage CBFs will benefit by understanding the requirements of their environment early in their appointment and by modifying the provided progression grid with their chair and mentoring team as needed. Following this personalized grid will increase the chances of a satisfying career with appropriate recognition for academic accomplishments.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 220-230 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | American Statistician |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 3 2017 |
Keywords
- Career choice
- Career progression grid
- Career satisfaction
- Collaborative biostatistics faculty
- Faculty promotion
- Leadership as statistician
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Statistics and Probability
- Mathematics(all)
- Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty
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In: American Statistician, Vol. 71, No. 3, 03.07.2017, p. 220-230.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Strategies for Success
T2 - Early-Stage Collaborating Biostatistics Faculty in an Academic Health Center
AU - Spratt, Heidi
AU - Fox, Erin E.
AU - Shara, Nawar
AU - Mazumdar, Madhu
N1 - Funding Information: This work was funded by the NIH CTSA Program in collaboration with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UL1 TR000371), Weill Cornell Medical College (2UL1 TR000457-06), the University of Texas Medical Branch ((UL1TR000071), Biostatistics Shared Resource Facility and NCI Cancer Center Support Grant, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (P30 CA196521-01). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the of f icial views of the NCATS or the NIH. Funding Information: An additional source of funding for an early-stage collaborative faculty member is an NIH Quantitative Mentored Career Development (K25) award, explicitly designed to allow early-stage biostatisticians (or other quantitative researchers) to acquire a skill set needed to become an independent investigator, with the guidance of a multi-disciplinary mentoring team (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-16-194. html). Many foundations also offer similar career development awards (American Heart Association Mentored Clinical and Population Research Award (AHA-Award 2016); American Asthma Foundation Scholar Award (AAFS-Award 2016)). Obtaining a K25 award can allow an early-stage CBF to develop leadership skills and to gain skills necessary for working in a team environment, while receiving protected time to develop such skills and conduct a research project. For the continued success of such an individual, an R01-level grant should be developed before the K award ends (https://www.nichd.nih.gov/ training/extramural/Pages/career.aspx; http://www.nimh.nih. gov/funding/training/career-development-programs-k-series.sht ml). Such an R01-level application can have a shared leadership structure, with both the collaborative biostatistician and a basic science or clinical researcher serving as multiple PIs. This arrangement will further demonstrate the leadership potential of the CBF. In addition, a CBF could serve as the PI of an R03 application. These are often designed for secondary analysis of existing datasets that a collaborative biostatistician could use to further investigate data from a collaborative project. An advantage of such a project includes strengthening the working relationship with the collaborative team by applying innovative statistical techniques to answer additional research questions. Funding Information: National Cancer Institute’s Team Science Toolkit: https://www.teamsciencetoolkit.cancer.gov/Public/SciTSsites.aspx Traits of a successful Statistician: http://stattrak.amstat.org////successfulstatistician/ Derr J () Statistical Consulting: A Guide to Effective Communication; Cengage Learning. Cook A () American Accent Training with Audio CDs; Barron’s Educational Series, NY, NY Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) Network: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/ Carey Smoak C. () My Experience as a Facilitator Between Biostatisticians and SAS Programmers, Paper MA-, http://www.lexjansen.com/pharmasug//management/ma.pdf Vanderbilt University, Center for Teaching: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-statistics/ Odueyungbo, A., and Thabane, L. (), "Mentoring in Biostatistics: Some Suggestions for Reform," Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, , –. doi: ./jmdh.s. Thabane, L., Thabane, M., and Goldsmith, C.H. (), ”Mentoring Young Statisticians: Facilitating the Acquisition of Important Career Skills,“ The African Statistical Journal, no. ,–. Golbeck AL, Olkin I, Gel YR (Editors) () Leadership and Women in Statistics; CRC Press, NY, NY American Statistical Association Leadership Courses: http://magazine.amstat.org/blog////leadershipncarolin/ Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Leadership Courses:https://www.aamc.org/members/leadership/catalog//careerdevelopment.html Streeter J () Networking in academia. EMBO Rep. ():–. doi:./embr.. PubMed PMID: http://postdoc.harvard.edu/files/postdoc/files/networking_in_academia.pdf Pfirman S, Balsam P, Bell R, Culligan P (): Maximizing Productivity and Recognition, Part : Publication, Citation, and Impact; http://www.sciencemag.org/careers///maximizing-productivity-and-recognition-part--publication-citation-and-impact Sonnad SS, Goldsack J, McGowan KL () A Writing Group for Female Assistant Professors. J Natl Med Assoc,:–, http://www.med.upenn.edu/focus/user_documents/WritersGroupPapercopy.pdf External Funding Sources: http://www.amstat.org/careers/efs.cfm Parent RO grants for Secondary Analysis of Existing Data: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/r.htm Mentored Quantitative Research Development Award (Parent K): http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA--.html Multiple PI RO: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/multi_pi/ Berg KM, Gill TM, Brown AF, Zerzan J, Elmore JG, Wilson IB. () Demystifying the NIH Grant Application Process. Journal of general internal medicine. ():–. Inouye SK, Fiellin DA. () An evidence-based guide to writing grant proposals for clinical research. Annals of internal medicine. ():–. Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools: https://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm The Grants On-Line Database (GOLD) for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): http://www.ahrq.gov/cpi/about/otherwebsites/gold.ahrq.gov/index.html American Statistical Association (ASA) Awards and Recognitions: https://www.amstat.org/awards/ Translational Science Awards: http://www.actscience.org/page/-annual-meeting-awards Mazumdar, M., Messinger, S., Finkelstein, D.M., Goldberg, J.D., Lindsell, C.J., Morton, S.C., Pollock, B.H., Rahbar, M.H., Welty, L.J., Parker, R.A., and Biostatistics, and Research Design (BERD) Key Function Committee of the Clinical and Translational Science (CTSA) Consortium. (), “Evaluating Scientists Collaborating in Team-Based Research: A Proposed Framework,”Acad Med; (),– American Statistical Association (ASA) conferences: http://www.amstat.org/meetings/ ASA Webinar Series http://www.amstat.org/education/weblectures/ Eastern North American Region (ENAR) Meetings:http://www.enar.org/meetings/index.cfm ENAR Webinar Series: http://www.enar.org/education/index.cfm Funding Information: Assemble materials for the promotion packet and add to them over time Publish your dissertation or data from your postdoctoral fellowship as soon as possible Develop a publication track record (– collaborative papers per year and methods paper per two years has been a reasonable target for most schools) Obtain internal funding for a pilot/feasibility study and check appropriate web sites for deadlines Be familiar with the statistical grant funding list on the ASA website (http://www.amstat.org/careers/fellowshipsgrants.cfm) If an Assistant Professor with a tenure-track appointment, submit an application for a career development award (e.g. NIH K) Write grant applications with your collaborators as PI and you as Co-Investigator or primary biostatistician (i.e., key personnel) with appropriate full-time effort; Write R proposal for secondary data analysis with data available within your research team or national databases Meet with the Director of the relevant PhD program to discuss your areas of expertise and volunteer to serve on dissertation committees Mentor graduate students, become a member of a dissertation committee, and facilitate PhD students’ research practicum experience Qualify for graduate faculty status and membership (your Department Chair must nominate you) Attend seminars focused on teaching skills. If your institution does not have one, find one at other institution. For foreign graduate students, speaking lessons to reduce an accent could be important. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 American Statistical Association.
PY - 2017/7/3
Y1 - 2017/7/3
N2 - Collaborative biostatistics faculty (CBF) are increasingly valued by academic health centers (AHCs) for their role in increasing success rates of grants and publications, and educating medical students and clinical researchers. Some AHCs have a biostatistics department that consists of only biostatisticians focused on methodological research, collaborative research, and education. Others may have a biostatistics unit within an interdisciplinary department, or statisticians recruited into clinical departments. Within each model, there is also variability in environment, influenced by the chair's background, research focus of colleagues, type of students taught, funding sources, and whether the department is in a medical school or school of public health. CBF appointments may be tenure track or nontenure, and expectations for promotion may vary greatly depending on the type of department, track, and the AHC. In this article, the authors identify strategies for developing early-stage CBFs in four domains: (1) Influence of department/environment, (2) Skills to develop, (3) Ways to increase productivity, and (4) Ways to document accomplishments. Graduating students and postdoctoral fellows should consider the first domain when choosing a faculty position. Early-stage CBFs will benefit by understanding the requirements of their environment early in their appointment and by modifying the provided progression grid with their chair and mentoring team as needed. Following this personalized grid will increase the chances of a satisfying career with appropriate recognition for academic accomplishments.
AB - Collaborative biostatistics faculty (CBF) are increasingly valued by academic health centers (AHCs) for their role in increasing success rates of grants and publications, and educating medical students and clinical researchers. Some AHCs have a biostatistics department that consists of only biostatisticians focused on methodological research, collaborative research, and education. Others may have a biostatistics unit within an interdisciplinary department, or statisticians recruited into clinical departments. Within each model, there is also variability in environment, influenced by the chair's background, research focus of colleagues, type of students taught, funding sources, and whether the department is in a medical school or school of public health. CBF appointments may be tenure track or nontenure, and expectations for promotion may vary greatly depending on the type of department, track, and the AHC. In this article, the authors identify strategies for developing early-stage CBFs in four domains: (1) Influence of department/environment, (2) Skills to develop, (3) Ways to increase productivity, and (4) Ways to document accomplishments. Graduating students and postdoctoral fellows should consider the first domain when choosing a faculty position. Early-stage CBFs will benefit by understanding the requirements of their environment early in their appointment and by modifying the provided progression grid with their chair and mentoring team as needed. Following this personalized grid will increase the chances of a satisfying career with appropriate recognition for academic accomplishments.
KW - Career choice
KW - Career progression grid
KW - Career satisfaction
KW - Collaborative biostatistics faculty
KW - Faculty promotion
KW - Leadership as statistician
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85031810757&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85031810757&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00031305.2016.1277157
DO - 10.1080/00031305.2016.1277157
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85031810757
SN - 0003-1305
VL - 71
SP - 220
EP - 230
JO - American Statistician
JF - American Statistician
IS - 3
ER -