Statistical Consulting

Mission

It is in the interest of the statistical consulting group in the Department of Population Medicine to provide the best possible statistical service and advice, by following our professional ethics as statisticians and epidemiologists.

The statistical consulting group in the Department of Population Medicine is committed to advise on the design and analysis of studies conducted by all faculty and students within the Department of Population Medicine and the Ontario Veterinary College in general. Collaboration within research projects conducted by other groups on campus or governmental and private research institutions is also welcome.

When To Contact Us

Inquiries are welcome at any time of your study, but involving us during the planning stage is recommended.

Before You Contact Us

There is always hope for quick advice, but often the devil is in the details. To speed up the consultations, we generally consider the following information about the project as essential, and recommend providing these in writing (if known):

• Name of the person(s) who seeks advise
• Contact information (phone, Email)
• Project title
• Names of collaborators or committee members
• Time frame of the project
• Hypothesis or study aim
• Sampling issues, e.g. number of health regions, farms, herds, animals involved or number of sampling times, length of sampling intervals
• Expected methodological approach, e.g. logistic regression on case-control study
• Information about the species and actual disease or agent under investigation – if possible provide us with fact sheets or related research papers
• Information about the biological test system (sensitivity/specifity)
• Other details you may find important, e.g. graphics or maps

Personal Profiles

Dr. Olaf Berke

Assistant Professor for Statistical Epidemiology
Room 2505B, Stewart Building
Contact by Email: oberke@uoguelph.ca
Phone: x58924
More Information

Areas of Interest

• Statistics: spatial statistics, geographical epidemiology, kriging, variogram, kfunction, kernel smoothing, scan test, Kalman filter, generalized linear mixed models, survival analysis
• Applications: zoonosis (e.g. Echinoccocus mulitlocularis, EHEC/HUS, WNv), antimicrobial resistance, environmental and climate change
• Animals: wildlife (red fox) and pigs Preferred Software: R (S-Plus)

William Sears

MSc (biology), MSc (statistics)
Statistical Consultant
Room 2503, Stewart Building
Contact by phone: Ext. 54754
E-mail: wsears@uoguelph.ca

Areas of Interest

• Statistics: experimental design, general (for normal data) and generalized linear models (for discrete data analyses and some kinds of non-normal data), non-parametric statistics (for rank and score data), distribution theory, ANOVA assumptions (normality, equality of variances), outlier testing, statistical computing, Monte Carlo and simulation, standard survival analyses (censored data, Cox Proportional Hazards models)

Preferred Software:

SAS, LogExact, StatExact, Minitab, Fortran, TableCurve (2d and 3d)

Preferred Software:

SAS