About the Division

The Division of Biostatistics is led by Susan Halabi, PhD and Christopher Lindsell, PhD and serves as the academic home for biostatistician researchers within the School of Medicine (SOM).  The division is currently comprised of 38 research-oriented faculty members, as well as postdoctoral associates, PhD students, MS and lab research staff. Faculty excel in both development of biostatistical methodology and the application of biostatistics in a myriad of research spanning from cancer to cardiology.  Several faculty serve as Principal Investigators (PI) on externally funded research ranging from coordinating centers to NIH funded R01. The faculty have achieved national and international reputations for excellence in both areas and reflect a diversity in background, race, ethnicity, and languages.  

Division faculty are actively engaged at the national and international level as well as with institutional initiatives and programs at Duke, including: 

  • Leadership and membership roles in the Medical School, the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI) and the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI), and Department of Veterans Affairs.
  • Leadership, teaching and mentoring roles in the Biostatistics, Masters and PhD educational programs; the Clinical Research Training Program, the Biomedical Sciences Educational Program.
  • International educational efforts.  Faculty created a 13-week clinical research training certificate program for Chinese physicians at Beijing Friendship Hospital (BFH). This certificate-based program was innovative in its use of a blended learning approach that included an online eLearning self-study, live webinars, and an in-person one week on site workshop.
  • Membership roles with the Duke Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. 
  • Serve as Fellows for the American Statistical Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Society of Clinical Trials, and the Royal Statistical Society.
  • Management and oversight of data sets to share data from our collaborations, clinical trials, and appropriate or relevant observational studies with other researchers.  Our faculty manage the SOAR™ (Supporting Open Access for Researchers) Data set for a collaboration between the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), academia, and private industry to open clinical research data for the benefit of the broader research community.   This project fosters transparency and openness in research, enabling researchers to build more rapidly upon previous work and allowing patients to gain access to needed therapies more quickly. 

Researchers & Interests

Expertise within the Biostatistics Division covers such areas as clinical trials, Bayesian, categorical data analysis, causal inference, longitudinal data, missing data, predictive models, resampling methods, survival analysis, meta-analysis, and many others. 

We invite you to learn more about the people in our division and specific interests of the group.