Biostatistics and Epidemiology Consulting Center Leadership
Amy Praestgaard, Managing Director
(Statistics), University of Washington, 1988Ms. Praestgaard, who is generally the first point of contact for investigators initiating requests for biostatistical or epidemiological support, supervises daily operations for the Biostatistics and Epidemiology Consulting Center (BECC).
Ms. Praestgaard joined the BECC 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. As BECC Managing Director, Ms. Praestgaard, along with the BECC 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.
Thomas R. Ten Have, Faculty Director
PhD (Biostatistics), University of Michigan, 1991; MPH (Biostatistics), University of Michigan, 1982Thomas 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 PennsylvaniaDr. 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.
