Concordia leads new Montreal Health Statistics Centre

Concordia is taking the lead in a new Health Science Collaborating Centre (HSCC), in partnership with several other Quebec universities.

The centre is one of seven new HSCCs being created across the country by the Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute (CANSSI). According to CANSSI, “These HSCCs will facilitate research collaborations between health scientists and statistical scientists, offer training programs and initiate projects on emerging health issues.”

The new Montreal Health Statistics Centre (MHS) will work in partnership with the École de Technologie Supérieure, the Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre, Polytechnique Montreal, and Concordia’s PERFORM Centre.

The MHS will work to promote Concordia’s key strategic directions, including teaching for tomorrow.

“In the emerging study of statistics as a multidisciplinary and applied science, the development of the center will provide an important platform in attracting students in statistics programs to the university,” says Yogen Chaubey, a professor in the department of Mathematics and Statistics. Chaubey will serve as the Centre’s co-director with colleague Simon Bacon.

"Having a multidisciplinary centre like this will provide a huge benefit to healthcare by being able to get the most out of research data that has been or is being currently collected,” says Bacon, a professor in the department of Exercise Science.

“This will help reduce research waste and speed up new heath innovations. More importantly, the focus on training highly qualified students means that the centre will create benefits over the longer term by coupling fantastic statistical skills with real world heathcare experience."

Initial funding provided by CANSSI is planned to go towards experiential learning programs for students.

“I’m excited for the students to get first-hand experience with the research process. It will give them a chance to put their theoretical knowledge from the classroom into practice with real-world implications,” says Lisa Kakinami, an assistant professor of Mathematics and Statistics who works with the PERFORM Centre and is on the MHS organizing committee.

“This demonstrates an important aspect of statistics in health research, and collaboration between statisticians and health care researchers,” says Cody Hyndman, chair of the Mathematics and Statistics department.

“Most importantly, students will benefit directly.”

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