COMPONENT 2: THE STATISTICAL AND DATA SERVICES INFRASTRUCTURE CORE - SDSIC (All years).? SDSIC will serve as the primary source of biostatistical consulting, analysis, and data management support for? the proposed 2006-2010 National Alcohol Center. The Statistical and Data Services (SDS) department is the? primary resource for biostatistical support and data management services within ARG and has been in operation? at ARG now for over a year. Although the 2001-2005 Center did not explicitly propose an organized method for? consolidating such services, the natural evolution of the way in which they have been provided strongly indicated? the need for a formal department with varying levels of biostatistical support capabilities. With the direction of? SDSIC activities provided by the Senior Biostatistician, the SDSIC will continue to provide these services and will? draw heavily on the current SDS department within ARG and the strong working relationships of the SDS? department staff. The SDS department currently has 3 biostatistical support personnel, with varying areas of? expertise. It also brings on as consultants some of the leaders in several areas of statistical analysis including the? analysis of longitudinal data and the design of surveys. Through the efficient consolidation of biostatistical and? data management resources, the SDSIC component proposes to support the Center's research goals in 3 ways.? First, the biostatistical personnel in the SDSIC will provide biostatistical and analysis support services to each of? the Center's research components. This support will be provided throughout the process of survey design,? analysis formulation and implementation, and finally to technical document preparation and to Center-related? grant development. Second, a new training aim is proposed with the goal of increasing the methodological? sophistication of Center researchers through the development and implementation of a series of statistical? courses that provide an in-depth study of the motivation, theory, and implementation of some of the cutting-edge? biostatistical methods currently in use in the alcohol research field. In addition, Center researchers will also be? trained in the use of statistical packages that implement these state-of-the-art methods. These courses have? already been offered by current biostatistical personnel in a limited capacity over the 2001-2005 Center period? and have been found to be extremely valuable in raising the level of technical functioning of alcohol researchers? in their continually evolving field. Third, the SDSIC will serve to provide database maintenance services to the? Center research projects. These services will include support for data entry, data security, and training for data? analysts in proper ARG programming and data analysis syntax protocols.?
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