Core C - Data Management and Statistical Core

ABSTRACT This ADRC has comprehensive and demanding translational research objectives, for which the Data Management and Statistical (DMS) Core must be able to efficiently collect, validate, integrate, and derive meaning from a complex array of data. Our key questions about heterogeneity in dementia, as reflected in young- onset and atypical AD/ADRD, require investigators to examine many complex relationships among clinical features, natural history, interactions between genotype and phenotype, biomarkers, clinico-pathological relationships, and connections between brain changes and neurobehavioral disturbances. These research questions can only be fully addressed with sophisticated and comprehensive data structures, and with the support of a cohesive team of expert statistical faculty. To facilitate this process, the DMS Core will incorporate a number of innovative tools that will enable our researchers to better identify and integrate high-quality multilevel data collected through this ADRC, while linking data with other resources at UCSF and beyond. Historically, the UCSF Memory and Aging Center (MAC) has shown national leadership in developing neurology-specific data management and analytic systems that integrate a wealth of information from a variety of sources in order to better understand the etiology and treatment of dementia syndromes and promote translational research. This DMS Core would be uniquely positioned to make a national impact on key NIH goals by making tools available to the ADRC network that are designed to facilitate and accelerate the research process for investigators. Furthermore, we have assembled a superb team of faculty from the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department who will provide high quality consultation concerning research design and analysis. Finally, with the help of the REC Core, this DMS Core is committed to providing quality training and education in effective approaches to both dataset generation and statistical analysis, not just for our early-career investigators but for ADRC-affiliated researchers at all levels. Overall, this DMS Core will combine our center’s solid two-decade foundation of excellent data management and UDS submission practices, with our innovative, custom-built tools enhancing representation and analysis of multiple levels of neurological information, as well as experienced statistical guidance that allows investigators to effectively model complex patterns and associations in our patients. We have structured this DMS core to ensure that these exemplary data management and research methods are not only successfully coordinated among the other multidisciplinary cores of this ADRC but are effectively taught to our investigators, freeing them to pursue the answers that will most powerfully impact dementia research and treatment.