Meet the members of our Biostatistics Centre who provide research design and research method expertise to Health Sciences researchers on Dunedin Campus at the University of Otago.
Meet the biostatistics team
Back row: Dr Ella Iosua, Professor Robin Turner, Research Associate Professor Claire Cameron, Mr Andrew Gray Front row: Dr Nisa Widyastuti, Dr Ari Samaranayaka.
Research Associate Professor Claire Cameron
Director
View Research Associate Professor Claire Cameron's profile
Email director.biostatistics-centre@otago.ac.nz
Research Associate Professor Andrew Gray
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Dr Ella Iosua
View Dr Ella Iosua's profile Research Associate Professor Ari Samaranayaka
View Research Associate Professor Ari Samaranayaka's profile
Professor Robin Turner
View Professor Robin Turner's profile
Dr Nisa Widyastuti
View Dr Nisa Widyastuti's profile
Affiliates of the Centre
Dave Barson
Dave Barson works as a Data Manager with the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine. He specialises in utilising large routinely collected administrative health data, linking disparate data sources, data collection and management. Dave currently applies this knowledge as a member of the Injury Prevention Research Unit and the Pharmacoepidemiology Research Network. Dave also has considerable expertise in the use of online data collection tools such as REDCap and LimeSurvey.
Associate Professor Gabrielle Davie
Associate Professor Gabrielle Davie is a health data researcher in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine. She has a background including a master's in Biostatistics from the University of Melbourne and 20 years of involvement in quantitative research projects. She has considerable research expertise with using routinely collected datasets in health research over a range of areas including injury, prehospital care and rural health. Gabrielle leads a team of data managers / programmers that provide crucial expertise in research projects across the University.
Brandon de Graaf
Brandon de Graaf is a health data scientist in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine. He has a keen interest in data capture, processing, process optimisation and automation, database management systems and data warehouses, and machine learning. Brandon also has specific expertise in geocoding, geospatial mapping, linking datasets, preparing and running online surveys, automating repetitive processes, and generally finding better ways to solve data problems and keep projects running smoothly.
Brett Maclennan
Dr Brett Maclennan is a Lecturer in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine where he teaches introductory/applied biostatistics. He has led and collaborated on a range of health-related projects, primarily in a quantitative role, for close to 20 years. These have included evaluations of alcohol policy on drinking and related harm, investigation of injury and disability outcomes among Māori, and examining trends in work-related fatal injury. His research interests include community involvement in the development of health policy, evaluation of health policies and interventions, and understanding ways of improving Māori health outcomes.
Professor John Pickering
Professor John PickeringAhorangi Rangahau (Research Professor) John Pickering is a kaipūtaiao (scientist) and kaitātara koiora (biostatistician) in Christchurch with the Rangahau Manawa o Ōtautahi (Christchurch Heart Institute) and Big Data and Ageing research groups of University of Ōtago Christchurch, and the Emergency medicine research group of Christchurch Hospital. His interests include optimising the use of biomarkers for diagnosis, clinical pathway development and translational research in acute care, and using the interRAI data to improve the wellbeing of older persons.
Associate Professor Trudy Sullivan
Associate Professor Trudy Sullivan is a health economist based in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine with a consultancy position in the Dunedin School of Medicine where she supports and works with clinicians and researchers to integrate health economics into their research. Her main area of research is measuring and valuing health-related quality of life. Her other research interests include multi-criteria decision making, implementing priority-setting frameworks, cost-effectiveness analysis and applied health economics in general.
Dr Jimmy Zeng
Dr Jimmy Zeng is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine. His research interests lie in the development of Statistical methodology and application of statistics in health-related areas including epidemiology, public health and clinical research. He has research expertise in model selection, model averaging, longitudinal data analysis and causal inference.
Research method expertise
The Biostatistics Centre has the goal of improving the quality of health research undertaken within the Division of Health Sciences. We provide rigorous and timely advice and support to researchers whom we work with in a collaborative and collegial manor. We have broad expertise in the application of statistics to health-related research across all aspects of the life cycle of research including study design, analysis and interpretation and writing of results.
Postgraduate students
Postgraduate students in the Biostatistics Centre
Christchurch and Wellington Campus contacts
- Biostatistics and Computational Biology Unit, Christchurch Campus
- Biostatistical Consulting Group, Wellington Campus