Establishing Partnerships with University Faculty Development Groups to Increase Statistical Training and General Consulting in the Academic Health Setting

• Activity Number: 68
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 4, 2013 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences
• Author(s): Jason Brinkley*+
• Companies: East Carolina University
• Keywords: Consulting ; University ; Workshops ; Training

Abstract

There is a growing need for University Departments of Statistics and Biostatistics to provide general consulting to other groups within the university. However it is often the case that individual units do a poor job publicizing consulting services and making these other groups understand the availability and mechanisms to obtain such help. Many universities have internal units responsible for faculty needs and training whose general mission include orienting new faculty, providing training on university systems and services, providing support for paperwork toward tenure, and so on. This presentation will discuss one partnership between a Department of Biostatistics and one such group (known locally as the Office for Faculty Excellence). This partnership has allowed the unit to publicize and deliver workshops on a variety of statistical software and research methods with diverse audiences including university faculty, graduate students, and staff. The partnership has increased the departments visibility, offered unique data and analytic challenges, and has led to an increase in both grant funded and non-grant funded research both collaborative and consulting in nature.