Training of statisticians and clinical researchers worldwide to collaborate as co-investigators within country clinical epidemiology units: the experience of the international clinical epidemiology network (INCLEN)

Clinical researchers rely on biostatisticians in order to design, conduct and analyse observational and experimental studies involving populations of subjects. In many countries, trained biostatisticians are not readily available. There are many possible approaches to this problem, including educating the medical or health professional to be a researcher with an understanding of statistical methodologies, as well as training statisticians to be biostatisticians with an understanding of clinical considerations. The International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) embarked on such an endeavour by creating clinical epidemiology units that included both approaches, trained clinical epidemiologists as well as biostatisticians. The specific statistical training needs of both types of students are described.