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Essential team science skills for biostatisticians on collaborative research teams

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2023

Emily Slade*
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
Ann M. Brearley
Affiliation:
Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Adrian Coles
Affiliation:
Global Biometrics and Data Sciences, Bristol Myers Squibb, Lawrence Township, NJ, USA
Matthew J. Hayat
Affiliation:
Department of Population Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Pandurang M. Kulkarni
Affiliation:
Global Data Sciences & Scientific Communications, Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, IN, USA
Amy S. Nowacki
Affiliation:
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA
Robert A. Oster
Affiliation:
Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Michael A. Posner
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA
Gregory Samsa
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
Heidi Spratt
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, School of Public and Population Health, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA
Jesse Troy
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
Gina-Maria Pomann
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
*
Corresponding author: E. Slade, PhD; Email: emily.slade@uky.edu
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Abstract

Introduction:

Despite the critical role that quantitative scientists play in biomedical research, graduate programs in quantitative fields often focus on technical and methodological skills, not on collaborative and leadership skills. In this study, we evaluate the importance of team science skills among collaborative biostatisticians for the purpose of identifying training opportunities to build a skilled workforce of quantitative team scientists.

Methods:

Our workgroup described 16 essential skills for collaborative biostatisticians. Collaborative biostatisticians were surveyed to assess the relative importance of these skills in their current work. The importance of each skill is summarized overall and compared across career stages, highest degrees earned, and job sectors.

Results:

Survey respondents were 343 collaborative biostatisticians spanning career stages (early: 24.2%, mid: 33.8%, late: 42.0%) and job sectors (academia: 69.4%, industry: 22.2%, government: 4.4%, self-employed: 4.1%). All 16 skills were rated as at least somewhat important by > 89.0% of respondents. Significant heterogeneity in importance by career stage and by highest degree earned was identified for several skills. Two skills (“regulatory requirements” and “databases, data sources, and data collection tools”) were more likely to be rated as absolutely essential by those working in industry (36.5%, 65.8%, respectively) than by those in academia (19.6%, 51.3%, respectively). Three additional skills were identified as important by survey respondents, for a total of 19 collaborative skills.

Conclusions:

We identified 19 team science skills that are important to the work of collaborative biostatisticians, laying the groundwork for enhancing graduate programs and establishing effective on-the-job training initiatives to meet workforce needs.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Association for Clinical and Translational Science
Figure 0

Table 1. Team science skills considered to be important to the work of collaborative biostatisticians

Figure 1

Table 2. Characteristics of survey participants (n = 343)

Figure 2

Table 3. Importance of each skill in all participants’ current work as a collaborative biostatistician, n = 343

Figure 3

Figure 1. Proportion of respondents rating each skill as absolutely essential by career stage. Blue represents early-career collaborative biostatisticians (0–5 years, n = 83), green represents mid-career collaborative biostatisticians (6–15 years, n = 116), and pink represents late-career collaborative biostatisticians (16+ years, n = 144). Skills are listed in descending order based on the overall proportion rating the skill as absolutely essential across career stages.

Figure 4

Figure 2. Proportion of respondents rating each skill as absolutely essential by highest degree earned. Turquoise represents master’s degree (n = 139), and pink represents doctoral degree (n = 204). Skills are listed in descending order based on the overall proportion rating the skill as absolutely essential across degrees earned.

Figure 5

Figure 3. Proportion of respondents rating each skill as absolutely essential by job sector. Purple represents academia/academic medical centers (n = 238), blue represents government (n = 15), green represents for-profit and non-profit industry (n = 76), and pink represents self-employed (n = 14). Skills are listed in descending order based on the overall proportion rating the skill as absolutely essential across job sectors.

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