April 3, 2019

With the goal of enabling the informed use of statistical software, Ragon Institute faculty statistician Dr. Musie Ghebremichael designed an introductory Biostatistics course, mixing lecture with experiential learning to provide the research community with the tools they need to effectively perform their own statistical analyses. "It’s important not just to know which statistical software package to use",but to also know which statistical test or method to use, the assumptions on which it is based, and how to evaluate whether that particular test or method is best suited for the data under consideration." says Dr. Ghebremichael

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December 13, 2023

Statistics is a vital science in research, and even more so in health research — from morbidity rates of new diseases to risks of side effects from any given medication, biostatistics is a pervasive and vital skill within immunology and health research across the board. Dr. Musie Ghebremichael is passionate about using that skill to train the next generation of African scientists.“Most research institutions, including ours, harvest a lot of data from Africa,” Ghebremichael said. “It’s then published in scientific journals which most of the participants or research staff do not have the access or the skill set to understand. And yet the findings are more relevant to them than anyone else.” Ghebremichael said he has three main goals with this course — giving students the skills to understand research relevant to them and develop as researchers; building the scientific capacity within their regions; and improving the quality of research coming out of their local regions through the advancement of these skills.

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