This core provides centralized services to the program project in three related areas: biostatistics, research computing, and data collection. The biostatisticians collaborate in all phases of research from study design, through interim analysis and monitoring, to final analysis and manuscript preparation. Biostatisticians were co-authors on over 130 manuscripts during the previous funding period, and are integral parts of the protocol development and review process. The computing group is responsible for the maintenance and operation of shared computing systems. These include a cluster of Alpha machines that support a centralized patient database, known as Gateway, and a Sun workstation that supports statistical computing. The computing staff create and maintain entry and reporting programs for Gateway, assist others in data extraction from the database, and maintain electronic connections to laboratory information which is downloaded directly to Gateway. The data collection group is responsible for data abstraction and entry into Gateway, and for maintenance of archival research files, which are stored in a web-accessible optical image library (OWL). The staff follow an explicit protocol for data abstraction, coding, key entry, and quality control that is applied uniformly to all transplant recipients entering research protocols of the Clinical Research Division, of whom a significant number enter protocols supported by this program project.
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