Statistical Consulting Services

II. Service mechanisms

a. Walk-in Consulting: Staff statistician are available for short questions
b. Appointments: Scheduled appointments are encouraged for matters that require more time. The SCS staff statisticians will triage clients to the most appropriate consultant, taking into account the expertise of various consultants.
c. Remote consulting: Clients can easily access consulting services through phone or video chat, providing a safe and convenient alternative to in-person meetings. In addition, clients can email simple statistical questions for quick responses at TBA@lsuhsc.edu.

III. Areas of specialties

a. Proposal Presentation and Study Design
The SCS's staff provides consulting services on the statistical aspects of research grants and/or contract proposals. Researchers are encouraged to make contact with the SCS early in the planning process of a quantitative study. Consulting services consist of the following:

• Study design
• Sampling methodology
• Randomization
• Study power and sample size calculations
• Data management, questionnaire design
• Database design for data collection
• Choice of Statistical Methodology
• Statistical Data Analysis
• Grant Proposal Writing involving statistical aspects of proposal and manuscripts

b. Statistical data analysis

• Continuous data analysis such as t-test, ANOVA, Repeated measurement, etc.
• Categorical data analysis such as Chi-square, logistic regression.
• Survival data analysis such as Kaplan-Meir Method, Log-rank test, Cox regression modelling, etc.
• Area under curve (AUC) computation.
• Analysis of Sample Survey Data.
• Multivariate methods such as factor analysis, principal component method.
• Missing data imputation.
• Reliability Studies

c. Dataset Usage Consulting
The SCS provides advice on database design and management, as well as on transferring datasets and across software (e.g., SPSS to SAS).

d. Choice of Statistical Methods
The SCS provides consulting services regarding the choice of appropriate and contemporary statistical methodology.

e. Use of Statistical Software
The SCS maintains a staff of consultants to help researchers implement statistical methodology using one or more of standard statistical computer programs. At present these programs include SAS, SPSS, and Microsoft Excel etc.

f. Interpretation of Results
Interpreting the results of various statistical methods and determining what conclusions are statistically justifiable.

g. Presentation of Results
Offers advice on presenting the results of statistical analyses, including graphical presentation.

IV. Collaborative Research

For projects that require more statistical services, SCS and its staff are available to submit, to join, to collaborate in research grant/contract proposals, or to enter into subcontract agreements. Such agreements might cover any or all of the various statistical/quantitative aspects of the research.

a. Preparation of committee meeting
b. Preparation of revision of manuscripts
c. Preparation of revision of grant proposal

V. Education/Workshops

The SCS presents workshops on statistical methods and statistical software. SAS and SPSS workshops, as well as a statistics review workshop, are offered each fall and winter. Other workshops may include: Calculating Sample Size, Structural Equation Modeling, Missing Data, and Survival Analysis as well as Clinical Trial Protocol Writing.

VI. The SCS's Computing Resources-Statistics and Computation Service Software Available