About the Biostatistics Analysis Center (BAC)
The Biostatistics Analysis Center (BAC) was created to provide professional MS- and PhD-level biostatistical support for collaborative research projects.
The BAC specializes in:
- Statistical programming and analysis using various commercially-certified statistical software packages such as SAS, S-Plus, Stata, StatXact and SUDAAN for data analysis support;
- Statistical data management support of analytic activities at any stage of a research project, specifically the preparation of analysis files for statistical software packages; and
- Technical report preparation, including the summarization of results and interpretations of statistical analyses of research data.
For more information about BAC, please contact Amy Praestgaard at 215-573-4859, or Janine Pritchard at 215-573-4045.
BAC Staff
Profiles of BAC Staff
BAC Directors
Profiles of BAC faculty and managing director
BAC Staff
MS (Applied Statistics), West Chester University of Pennsylvania, 2007
Ms. Appleby joined the Biostatistics Unit in January, 2008, after completing her master's degree. Prior to returning to graduate school, she accumulated 17 years of experience in programming, engineering, management, and consulting at companies including DuPont and Oracle. She is currently collaborating on several projects.
MS (Statistics), Ohio State University, 1997
Ms. Brensinger joined the Biostatistics Unit within the CCEB upon receiving her degree in July of 1997. Prior to graduate school, she worked for two years as a statistical analyst at the Center for Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, PA. Ms. Brensinger currently works on collaborative projects involving schizophrenia, interstitial cystitis, drug-induced sudden death, and predictors of over- and under-anticoagulation while on warfarin treatment. In addition, she serves as a statistical consultant to the Gastroenterology Division.
PhD (Psychology), University of Pennsylvania, 1975
Dr. Cary joined the Biostatistics Unit in February 2003 after 25 years of experience in academia (as faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN) and business settings (as Sr. Statistician at Chilton Research, Radnor, PA, and VP for Management Science at Research International USA). His current work is primarily in psychiatry, conjoint preference measurement, and databases.
MS (Biostatistics), State University of New York at Albany, 2003
Ms. Cen joined the Biostatistics Unit in April 2006. She is a biostatistician on health service research for the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, and was a data analyst working on healthcare outcome measures research for the Department of Health Policy, Management & Behavior at University at Albany, School of Public Health. She currently works on collaborative projects involving interstitial cystitis and cardiac arrest.
MS (Statistics), University of Maryland, 1993
Mr. Chittams joined the Biostatistics Unit in 1997 after serving three years as Director of the Data Management and Statistics Unit within the Center for Psychotherapy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chittams currently serves as Interim Managing Director of the BAC and leads a series of technical training sessions for the biostatisticians in the BAC. In addition, he works on collaborative projects involving rheumatoid arthritis, alcohol addiction, radiology, ectopic pregnancy, eating disorders, and heart disorders.
MS (Statistics), Texas A&M University, 2002;
MS (Biophysics), Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Science, 2000
Ms. Chuai joined the Biostatistics Unit in July 2005 after serving two years as Research Biostatistician in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY. Her experience varies from phase I, II, and III clinical trials design, retrospective data analysis, to statistical genetics, including microarray data analysis and SNP/haplotype association studies. Ms. Chuai is currently involved in several randomized clinical trials within the Urological Pelvic Pain Collaborative Research Network (UPPCRN). She is also working on collaborative projects including candidate gene analysis and genome-wide association analysis in breast cancer and cardiovascular studies.
PhD (Mathematical Statistics), Drexel University, 2000;
MS (Statistics), Drexel University, 1995
Dr. Gallop joined the Biostatistics Unit in 1999 after serving two years as Director of the Data Management and Statistics Unit within the Center for Psychotherapy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Gallop is currently collaborating on the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) grant and methods work with Dr. Ten Have.
BS (Mathematics), Cheyney University, Senior
Mr. Greene joined the BAC as a SAS programmer in December 2006. He is currently a senior at Cheyney University majoring in Mathematics. Mr. Greene works at the BAC part-time on the collaborative project Physical Activity and Lymphedema (PAL). He also, works part-time as a Research Assistant at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in the Adolescent Medicine Department on an HIV/AIDS Community Based Participatory Research Project, Connect to Protect®.
MS (Statistics), University of Cincinnati, 2002
Ms. Han joined the Biostatistics Unit in January 2005 after serving two years as a biostatistician at the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion at the VA in Pittsburgh, PA. She currently works on collaborative projects involving the Impact of Quinolone-resistant E. coli carriage study, the PRIME P1 medical errors project, Walking for wellness study, Drug-drug interction study, and the CARBS study.
MPH, University of Pittsburgh, 2006
Mr. Hanish joined the BAC as a SAS programmer in May 2007 after completing a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh. Currently, Mr. Hanish is participating in two projects; the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) and the Urological Pelvic Pain Collaborative Research Network (UPPCRN).
BS (Mathematics) University of Pennsylvania, currently matriculating
Mr. Herlim joined the BAC as a SAS programmer in 2001. He is currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in mathematics. Mr. Herlim currently works on collaborative projects involving schizophrenia, women's health, and several projects using the GPRD and CMS databases.
MS (Biostatistics), University of Michigan, 1998
Mr. Kallan joined the Biostatistics Unit upon receiving his degree in 1998. During his time in graduate school, he worked as a statistician for both the University of Michigan Transportation Institute (UMTRI) and the Ann Arbor Veterans' Administration. Mr. Kallan has worked on various collaborative projects during his time at Penn, including those in the fields of child passenger safety, geriatric psychiatry, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, lymphedema, and pneumonia. In addition to being a co-author on numerous papers in the peer-reviewed literature, he has presented research findings from the Partners for Child Passenger Safety project at both scientific and statistical conferences.
BS (Applied Statistics), Penn State University, 2005
Mr. Kim join the CCEB early 2006. He is working on collaborative projects involving chronic renal insufficiency, GPRD data, and other projects building Access databases. Prior to this, Mr. Kim spent a year working for the Statistical Consulting Center at PSU University Park where he practiced statistical analysis in various fields of social science, but mainly in the field of economics.
SAS Certificates, Philadelphia University, 2001;
BS (Medical Laboratory Technologist), Hunan Medical University, 1987, Changsha, Hunan, China
Ms. Liu joined the BAC as a SAS programmer in March 2002. Prior to coming to the CCEB, she worked at GEN Trak, Inc. Ms. Liu currently works on collaborative projects involving: lymphedema, psoriasis, sudden death, diet, and lung disease.
BS (Business Economics), Grove City College, 1999; B.A. (Mathematics) West Chester University, 2004
Mr. Newcomb joined the BAC as a SAS programmer in 2004; he is now serving as a biostatistician. He currently works on collaborative projects involving predictors of over- and under-anticoagulation in warfarin treatment, drug-induced sudden death, irritable bowl syndrome, Crohn's disease, and several projects building and maintaining Access databases.
MS (Statistics), University of Washington, 1988
Ms. Praestgaard joined the BAC in January 2007, bringing with her more than sixteen years experience as a consulting statistician and manager. Her applied statistics experience is diverse, and her management experience includes leading the biostatistics group at the College of American Pathologists and managing a fraud analytics department at Citigroup. Ms. Praestgaard's pre-Penn accomplishments include developing a patented methodology to cluster pathology laboratories according to test volume and complexity and saving a credit card portfolio more than $10 million per year by implementing statistically derived fraud rules. Ms. Praestgaard now serves as Managing Director for the BAC, and, along with the BAC Faculty Director and Associate Director, is responsible for ensuring that the unit operates as efficiently as possible, consistently delivers high quality and timely results, and is strategically poised to meet the evolving demands of the research community.
BS (Business Management), University of Phoenix, 2007
Ms. Smith joined the BAC as a SAS Programmer Analyst in November 2007. Prior to joining the BAC, she worked in the Faculty Affairs and Professional Development Department in the School of Medicine, as an Office System Coordinator. There she analyzed faculty data using SQL and Crystal Reports reporting tools. Catherine has also worked at the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation as a Database Coordinator, maintaining Microsoft Access Databases to track and monitor job seeker data. Her knowledge of SQL has helped her transition to using SAS, since their languages are interchangeable in Proc SQL. In the BAC, Ms. Smith is currently collaborating on the PAL, UPHS and PIPS projects.
PhD (Measurement, Evaluation and Techniques of Experimental Research), University of Pennsylvania, 1987;
MS (Measurement, Evaluation and Techniques of Experimental Research), University of Pennsylvania, 1981
Dr. Taylor joined the Biostatistics Unit in September 2000. She has over 15 years of experience in programming and data analysis, research design, and statistical consulting in psychometrics, program evaluation, and biostatistics. She is also the statistician and program evaluation specialist for the Center of Excellence on Minority Health at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, and was the senior data analyst for the Center of Health Behavior, Communications, and Policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communications.
MS (Biostatistics), University of Pennsylvania, 2006; MS (Materials Engineering), MIT, 1984
Ms. Teal joined the Biostatistics Unit in August 2006 after completing her degree. Prior to returning to graduate school, she accumulated over 15 years of experience as an engineer with Boeing, GMT Microelectronics, and Lucent. As a biostatistics grad student she worked on clinical trials. She is currently collaborating on several projects including the CRIC study (Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort), intervention studies, and working with NHANES III data.
MS (Applied Statistics), University of Vermont, 2001;
MS (Applied Math), University of Cincinnati, 2003
Mr. Wan joined the Biostatistics Unit in Aug 2006 and currently works on collaborative projects involving Medicare and statistical genetics.
MS (Biostatistics), University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), 2004
Ms. Wang joined the BAC as a biostatistician in August 2004. She currently works on collaborative projects involving the GPRD database for psoriasis, and the hormonal prevention of CV disease. She uses various statistical techniques including survival analysis, conditional logistic regression, multiple imputation for missing data and propensity-matching. She is also involved in short-term consulting projects such as the economic impact on adherence in HIV/AIDS study.
PhD (Psychology), University of Pennsylvania, 1975
Dr. Weber joined the Biostatistics Unit in October 1998. Some highlights of her work include collaboration on case-control studies of cancer and its sequelae, with Drs. Brian Strom, Sandra Norman, and Timothy Rebbeck (CCEB); and a clinical trial of exercise in the frail elderly, with Drs. Neville Strump (School of Nursing, UPenn) and JA Grisso (formerly of the CCEB, now at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). She has used various statistical techniques including survival analysis, conditional logistic regression, and propensity-matching.
BAC Directors
Thomas R. Ten Have, Faculty DirectorPhD (Biostatistics), University of Michigan, 1991; MPH (Biostatistics), University of Michigan, 1982
Thomas Ten Have, PhD, Professor of Biostatistics, joined the Biostatistics faculty in 1997 after five years at the Center for Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Penn State University College of Medicine in Hershey, PA. His statistical research interests are in categorical data analysis, random effects models, informative dropout, treatment non-adherence, mediation and effect modification analyses, and designs and statistical analyses for complex adaptive treatment regimes.
These methodological interests have contributed to the collaborative research projects on which Dr. Ten Have has served during his career at Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and the University of Pennsylvania. The projects at PSU included investigating cardiovascular impact of sleep apnea in adults and comparisons of this impact between the elderly and younger adults. In addition, Dr. Ten Have collaborated on a community-based randomized trial that evaluated an educational intervention for reducing cholesterol and risk of hypertension in elderly African-Americans.
Currently, Dr. Ten Have is Director of the Biostatistics-Data Core and a co-investigator of the NIMH-sponsored Advanced Center for Intervention Services Research (ACISR) for Depression in the Aged. In this capacity, Dr. Ten Have is collaborating on trials involving the prevention of suicide in elderly primary care patients; the treatment of post-menopausal women with estrogen for depression; the treatment of substance abuse, anxiety, and depression in elderly veterans; and disparities of screening and treatment for mental health disorders in participants of color. He also is participating in a number of post-study analyses of disease-related functional disability and depression; the interaction of age and race on the association between estrogen or its precursors and depression; and the impact of hospitalization for delirium on elderly patients.
In addition to investigating methods for accommodating dropout in longitudinal studies, Dr. Ten Have is focusing on other methodological issues including: 1) accounting for different sources of non-adherence in randomized trials, such as patient- and physician-level non-adherence to randomized treatment regimes; 2) analyses of data from practice-randomized studies; and 3) designs and analyses of clinical trials investigating complex multi-component, adaptive treatment regimes; and 4) and opening up complex interventions with mediation and effect modification analyses.
Finally, Dr. Ten Have is strongly committed to affirmative action in the recruitment of students, faculty members, investigators, study participants, and research topics.
Dr. Ten Have will make referrals when specialized statistical expertise is required from other faculty in Biostatistics.
John T. Farrar, Associate Faculty Director
MD, University of Rochester, 1981; MSCE 2000, PhD 2004 University of Pennsylvania
Dr. John Farrar is Assistant Professor of Epidemiology within the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and Senior Scholar, CCEB. Dr. Farrar earned a BS in Biology (magna cum laude) with an additional concentration in Computer Science from Brown University in 1976. He received his MD from the University of Rochester, completed a Neurology Residency at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, and a fellowship in Pain Management at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In 1991 he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Neurology, with a primary interest in pain management, especially in cancer patients. Dr. Farrar serves as the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania's (HUP) Vice-Chair of the Drug Use and Effects Subcommittee, Chair of the Pain Management Subcommittee of HUP's Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, a member of the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, and Chair of the Cancer Center's Pain Management Program Committee on Clinical Research. Dr. Farrar's major activity is clinical research in pharmacoepidemiology and the management of pain, especially in cancer patients. He is currently principal investigator on a number of grants to carry out clinical trials of new pain therapy and to improve the methodology for pain outcomes measurement (including quality of life) and analysis. He has collaborated in the development of a multi-disciplinary program for the evaluation and treatment of cancer patients with pain and has a clinical practice that focuses on all aspects of pain therapy. When projects require specialized study design expertise, Dr. Farrar will arrange for assistance, which will generally come from other faculty in Epidemiology.
Amy Praestgaard, Managing Director
MS (Statistics), University of Washington, 1988
Ms. Praestgaard joined the BAC in January 2007, bringing with her more than sixteen years experience as a consulting statistician and manager. Her applied statistics experience is diverse, and her management experience includes leading the biostatistics group at the College of American Pathologists and managing a fraud analytics department at Citigroup. Ms. Praestgaard's pre-Penn accomplishments include developing a patented methodology to cluster pathology laboratories according to test volume and complexity and saving a credit card portfolio more than $10 million per year by implementing statistically derived fraud rules. Ms. Praestgaard now serves as Managing Director for the BAC, and, along with the BAC Faculty Director and Associate Director, is responsible for ensuring that the unit operates as efficiently as possible, consistently delivers high quality and timely results, and is strategically poised to meet the evolving demands of the research community.
Ms. Praestgaard, who will generally be the first contact for investigators making new requests, supervises daily operations in the BAC.
