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The Complete Guide to Becoming A Biostatistician
The honest, numbers-first guide to what biostatisticians really do, what they earn, and whether you have what it takes to become one
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: What Does a Biostatistician Actually Do?
What Does a Biostatistician Actually Do?
Let's clear one thing up right away: a biostatistician is not a data entry clerk, and they're not a data scientist who happens to work near a hospital. A biostatistician is a statistician who applies statistical theory and methods to problems in biology, medicine, public health, and health care. The core of the job is designing studies and analyzing data to answer questions like: does this new drug work better than the old one? Does this environmental chemical increase the risk of a birth defect? Which patients are most likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge?
To understand the job, you have to understand that a biostatistician's work is not a single task. It's a cycle that repeats on every project. That cycle usually looks like this. First, you help design the study. Before a single drop of blood is drawn or a single questionnaire is emailed, you have to figure out the size of the study needed to answer the question. If you're testing a new blood pressure drug, how many patients do you need to enroll to be confident that a small difference you see isn't just random chance? That number is called the sample size, and calculating it is often one of your first and most important contributions. Get it wrong, and the entire study could fail to produce a definitive answer, wasting millions of dollars and years