ABSTRACT

Currently, the collaborative process and experience between biostatisticians and their collaborators has not been reported collectively, and little is known about the challenges faced and opportunities available to improve the process. A survey was conducted among members of the Centre for Quantitative Medicine (CQM) at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore. The purpose of the survey was to obtain a baseline understanding of the experiences of statisticians specifically in terms of collaborating with clinicians and other researchers. This is the first time such a survey has been conducted and reported. Section 11.2 in this chapter provides details on the survey methodology. Topics studied in the survey such as problems faced in collaborating with clinicians, sources of training on collaboration skills, common responsibilities of an academic biostatistician and enhancing collaborations and skills to gain to further collaborations are subsequently presented. Finally, interviews with selected clinicians from diverse medical specialties and geographical regions, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Australia, were conducted to better understand the collaborative process from the other end of the collaboration spectrum.