The goal of the Methodologic Core is to support high-impact clinical research focusing on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of musculoskeletal diseases. Specifically, the Methodologic Core will provide the contemporary data science infrastructure necessary for studies that leverage electronic medical records (EMR), and for trials that collect patient reported outcomes. We will organize around three major activities: rigorous and novel study designs; secondary use of EMR data for research; and primary data collection and pragmatic clinical trial conduct. In particular, the linkage of multiple EMR systems is opening new opportunities for large-scale clinical research, but also demands new methods for the extraction of reliable information, and for the design of trials that can tailor to the characteristics of patients and health care delivery systems. The University of Washington Center for Biomedical Statistics (CBS) has provided informatics and statistical leadership to multiple observational and randomized studies focusing on musculoskeletal disorders, and is uniquely positioned to provide the foundation for expanded impact within the broad scope of the NIAMS mission.
