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The #PopHealthLab provides a service of consulting in the broad area of health data science to professors of the Department of Community Health and Medico-Chirurgical Disciplines of the University of Fribourg.

This consulting is led by Dr. Cristian Carmeli, PhD, senior lecturer in health data science. Our aim is to offer advice on the study design, on the way to manage your data, on the choice of the statistical method and of an appropriate computer software, as well as on the interpretation and communication of the findings.

We advise to contact us before the project starts. Usually, this takes place in an initial one-hour meeting with a few follow-ups if needed. The goal of the consulting is to give you some guidance on how you can perform the project on your own. We have a broad knowledge in data science but we are not necessarily experts in your field. Moreover, we don’t have the capacity to do the science for you. Think of us as data scientists who can give you an opinion, discuss the problem with you, give you some hints, and point you in a direction of further reading. A large part of the initial meeting consists of understanding your study. This part is very important for helping you effectively.

Covered by the consulting:

  • Feedback on study design (study type, sample size)
  • Feedback on choice of exposure, outcome, confounders
  • Feedback on quality (data quality, reproducability of research, clarity of study protocol, data privacy, good practices in data management)
  • Feedback on descriptive/predictive/causal analysis (imputation of missing data, interactions, effect modifications, multi-level models, survival analysis, mediation analysis, choice of statistical software)
  • Feedback on interpretation and communication of results (data visualization)

Not covered by the consulting:

  • Analysis of data
  • Data cleaning
  • Database mangement
  • Submission of protocol to the ethical commission
  • Writing of manuscript (section) or preparation of tables/figures
  • Supervision of Master projects in Medicine

How to proceed

The consulting service is for Full Professors of the Department of Community Health and Medico-Chirurgical Disciplines of the University of Fribourg. To have access to the consulting, interested professors are asked to fill in this template and send it to healthdatascience@unifr.ch.