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Biostatistics & Health Informatics

 

About Biostatistics & Health Informatics

The department has been a major force in the development of quantitative methodology as applied to mental health research, with significant national and international collaborations, and with growing impact into all areas of medicine particularly through expertise in trials and software development. The department is organised into two groups, though we often work closely together on projects. 

Biostatistics

The Biostatistics Group is made up largely of statisticians. We have four primary areas of methodological and applied research: prediction modelling and personalized medicine; causal evaluation and the analysis of therapeutic mechanism; the Psychometrics & Measurement Lab; life course research and the mental health trials statistics. Our statisticians also provide statistical collaboration for both introductory and advanced training in applied statistical methodology.

The Institute has had a dedicated biostatistics department since 1964, opened then as the Biometrics Unit by Professor A.E. Maxwell, and now headed by Professor Sabine Landau.

The department also hosts the IoPPN's UKCRC accredited King's Clinical Trials Unit which provides randomisation, data management, trial management and statistical analysis for a growing portfolio of both single and multi-centre trials.

Health Informatics

The Health Informatics Group at the Department of Biostatistics & Health Informatics is headed by Professor Richard Dobson. The Group's research is focused on translational bioinformatics and its application to complex disease. It is comprised of a mix of data and computer scientists, research software engineers and clinical & bio-informaticians, focused on the use of data from 'omics, electronic health records, the exposome, smartphones and wearables for real-time tailored care and alerting, trial recruitment, patient stratification and research. This multi-disciplinary team is able to develop and implement solutions for analysing and interpreting complex integrative datasets and for communicating findings to clinicians and patients.

Via the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, Health Informatics is one of the three founding partners behind ‘Rosalind’, a shared, high performance computing facility launched in October 2015. Rosalind provides researchers with a flexible, private cloud environment, alongside traditional compute facilities for bioinformatics, clinical informatics, imaging, sequencing and genomics, supporting next generation, large-scale analyses that will accelerate translational research across the biomedical, life sciences, and health informatics disciplines.

We receive NIHR Maudsley BRC and National Institute for Health Research CTU support funding.

The Precision Health Informatics Data Lab group, led by Professor Richard Dobson, is motivated towards enabling a “panoromic” view of patients that is precise, predictive, preventative and participatory, through the integration of traditional ‘omics data with data derived from mHealth, electronic patient records, knowledge graphs. The group works closely alongside the National Institute for Health Research Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR Maudsley BRC) supporting their translational research into novel tests, treatments and technologies to understand and treat mental disorders.

The Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics is a leader in the education of methodology, applied statistics and Health Informatics. The department offers a wide range of introductory and advanced training and our statisticians and health informaticians provide consultation on a wide variety of topics related to the field.

The department provides a BHI Advisory Service to staff and students. To read more about the service and how it can help with providing initial project advice and technical support with carrying out a research project, visit the BHI Advisory Service page.

Our courses

Duration: One year

Develop multimodal and big data analysis techniques to solve real-world problems.

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See if you're eligible for a Master's Scholarship for 2020 entry.



The Senior Leadership team are:

Head of Department:

Richard Dobson

Business Manager:

Liam Morton





Facilities

Facilities

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Further information for prospective students

Professional training

Professional training

The IoPPN offers a range of professional training opportunities to support your career development.

Careers

Careers

Careers in Psychiatry, Mental Health, and Psychology