Statistics for the Rest of Us
Thursday, January 29, 2015 at 12pm ET
You are invited to attend the first installment of Orion Bionetworks’ webinar series to be held in 2015! On January 29, 2015, at 12 noon ET, Dr. Lori Chibnik, who holds a joint appointment as Assistant Professor of both Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, will present a webinar titled “Statistics for the Rest of Us.”
Dr. Chibnik earned a PhD in biostatistics and an MPH in international health from Boston University. Her research focuses on the genetics and epigenomics of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), cognitive decline, and multiple sclerosis (MS); her current work looks at the integration of genetic and epigenetic factors with epidemiological data to predict cognitive decline and AD pathology.
In discussing “Statistics for the Rest of Us,” Dr. Chibnik will explore the idea that, while statistics are found everywhere around us, statistical terms and concepts are rarely explained in terms of how they are calculated, how they should be used, and what they can tell us. Using examples from AD and MS research, Dr. Chibnik will discuss (1) the more common statistical metrics used to determine disease risk, specifically, risk vs. odds, relative risk vs. absolute risk, and confidence intervals and margin of error; (2) the statistics behind risk prediction and how the models are developed, tested, and assessed; and (3) the concept of causation: what is required to prove causation over association.
