The Biostatistics and Research Information Systems Core (BIC), part of Wake Forest School of Medicine’s Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC), provides statistical and programming expertise in the areas of research design, quality control, statistical analyses and data management.

The BIC is composed of a team of highly-qualified investigators with expertise in:

  • Observational and pilot studies
  • Clinical trials
  • Database development
  • Centralized and decentralized data management
  • Forms design
  • Data processing
  • Psychometrics
  • Statistical analysis of data from multiple study designs
  • Development of novel statistical methods

Core Capabilities

The BIC provides personnel and other resources to:

  • Collaborate with investigators in the planning and conduct of OAIC Pilot and Research Development studies
  • Collaborate throughout all phases of the integration of OAIC Core measures in ongoing externally-funded studies
  • Collaborate with the Research Education Core to provide training to junior faculty in the conduct and analysis of geriatric research

  • Faculty and master’s-level statisticians within the BIC participate in analyses, manuscript preparation and development/review of pilot study applications and other applications

Highlighted Research

Collaboration on studies using innovative analytical methods continues to be an important activity of core members. Highlights include:

  • Drs. Miller and Ip have collaborated with Dr. Speiser to publish a paper on using Machine Learning in aging studies (Speiser et al. 2021)
  • Dr. Miller Collaborated with Dr. Fanning aimed at cross-calibrating commonly used activity monitoring devices and generating advanced metrics that capture amount, pattern and variability in sedentary behavior and physical activity (Fanning 2021)
  • Dr. Pajewski, in collaboration with Dr. Callahan, has developed an automated electronic frailty index (eFI) in older adults based on the deficit accumulation model of frailty, which was incorporated into the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist HER (Pajewski, J Gerontol A Bio Scie Med Sci 2019; Callahan, J Am Geriatr Soc. 2021). eFI was further applied in patients with Type 2 diabetes and prediction of adverse events after endoscopy (Callahan, Diabetes Spectrum. 2022; Rejeski, J Am Geriatr Soc. 2022)
  • Dr. Leng led a collaboration project with OAIC CC in which the BIC expanded the publicly accessible registry component of the IASDR to the OAIC CC-supported Pepper Studies Registry (PSR). This led to an OAIC CC supplement grant, led by Drs. Ip and Leng to seek certification for the WF OAIC IASDR consistent with the FAIR and TRUST data sharing principles