They called me Queen of the Nerds… or Mathgoddess. Yes, that’s me at Graduation.
For a long time, most people in my family didn’t know or couldn’t explain what my career was. My brother eloquently described it as “my sister counts dead babies” when I worked in neonatology for CHOP PA.
Its really not that simple or depressing.
Lets start out with my Master’s degree in mathematics with a concentration in statistics. Then there’s my Bachelor’s degree in applied math with a concentration of programming. But the most impressive thing is my 25 years in working with pharmaceutical companies and hospitals to plan studies, and analyze and interpret medical data.
These are the things I do:
Write a program to analyze medical data for ad-hoc analysis
Turn a principal investigator’s question into a mathematical hypothesis
Help design a clinical trial and help determine what data is collected
Write the analysis section of a medical protocol
Write detailed analysis plans
Write results section
Check the output of from programmers
Write the programs that the programmer’s can’t write
Come up with new mathematical/statistical methodology
Review the conclusion of the study to make sure it matches the results I’ve written
Now that I’ve bored you with my nerd list, we can now move onto why I’m pissed at the the world:
The people in charge couldn’t pass a 4th grade graph and chart test and that’s why we are here wearing masks and playing “hide from the virus.”
I find it annoying people can’t recognize a politician from an authority on medical data.
and then there’s this:
Person: “Who’s qualified to interpret the medical data?”
Me: “I am.“
Person: “But you aren’t an epidemiologist.”
Me: “GRRRRRRR.”
Let me put it this way, I’ve never hired an epidemiologist to make mathematical conclusions about population health issues or determine what analysis is appropriate for the data… THEY PAY ME for that.
Epidemiologists mostly work for the state. I work privately, in fact, its been so lucrative that I started my own consulting firm in 2004.
I’ve worked on medicines and medical devices. I’ve presented to the FDA to defend study designs. I’ve worked on the data for vaccines. I am one of the authors on a paper about the children’s obesity epidemic. I’ve authored papers on patterns of care in cancer. This is the thing I’ve been doing for 25 years.
So now we have established that an biostatistician is qualified to make interpretations on population health data, This news letter will provide you with information that you may or may not know. But you can feel good knowing it comes from a professional.
I’ve got more coming.
Share with your friends.
You are the most credible breath-of-fresh air for all of us, and exactly what is needed. Thank you for breaking it down into nontechnical terms for others to understand who you are and what you do. Badass. 👊🏼