About Us

JHBC was created with two goals in mind: to ensure that Johns Hopkins faculty and student scientists could access high quality statistical consultation in a timely fashion, and to disseminate the Department of Biostatistics innovation with external customers. In 1997, Dr. Frank Hurley, Department of Biostatistics alumnus, worked with Scott Zeger, PhD, JHBC's first Executive Director, to develop the approach for establishing the center including: how to work with researchers, build computing and database infrastructure, and administer and bill for services.

In its early years, the vast majority of JHBC's users were students and faculty from the Schools of Public Health, Medicine and Nursing. Students mainly sought answers to statistical questions for their theses, and at the suggestion of Elizabeth (Johnson) Colantuoni, a free Friday clinic was initiated to provide this support. Faculty came for design and analysis advice when writing grants, which was also provided as a free service. Other faculty were in the middle of studies and asked for data analysis support that was funded by their grants.

In the early years, JHBC had three prominent external clients. The States of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Maryland and the U.S. Department of Justice hired JHBC to support their suits against the tobacco industry. Scott Zeger, then student Elizabeth Colantuoni, and alumnus Timothy Wyant served as experts for the plaintiffs in these suits, and provided analyses of the National Medical Expenditure Survey data to estimate the costs of treating major smoking-caused diseases.

Over a 5-year period in the 1990s, Jannsen Pharmaceutical hired many Johns Hopkins Biostatistics faculty, led by Professor Kung-Yee Liang, to consult with them about the design and analyses of longitudinal studies to test treatments for depression, cancer and other diseases. In a typical year, the faculty and students would review Jannsen research protocols, design one or two short-courses on novel methods and deliver them to audiences of statisticians and clinical investigators at Jannsen.

Finally, in the 1990s, JHBC started providing faculty salary equity analyses to Johns Hopkins Schools of Public Health and Medicine. Work with these and other Hopkins groups continues today, including follow up on dissertation work relating to novel methods for this type of analysis.

In 2005, Michael Griswold, PhD '05, became the second Executive Director. JHBC started growing its staff with a small cohort of biostatistical consultants and PhD candidates to provide support for an increase in Hopkins researchers and external clients. In 2007, JHBC became part of the network supporting Johns Hopkins' first 5-year Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This grant allowed JHBC to provide additional free statistical support for Hopkins' researchers in the areas of study design, grant preparation, analysis and manuscript preparation. Work with faculty salary equity studies continued for Hopkins' schools and other clients.

In 2008, Richard Thompson, PhD, transitioned from the position of Associate Director to interim Executive Director and was subsequently named the Executive Director in 2010. Under his leadership, JHBC's faculty and staff increased over twofold to 10 FTEs. Richard helped establish the ScM internship, a program that over five years provided an opportunity for the Johns Hopkins Department of Biostatistics top ScM graduate students to train as biostatistical consultants while completing their didactic course work. Richard was instrumental in creating the Data Informatics Services Core (DISC), JHBC's data management arm. Through DISC, JHBC was one of the first organizations within the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions to support the use of REDCap for data collection and management. The Wilmer Biostatistics Core was initiated in collaboration with the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology to provide statistical support to clinicians conducting research on eye disease. 

In 2013, Richard and JHBC were awarded a $2 million U01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide data management and statistical support for the Minimally-Invasive Surgery Plus rt-PA for Intracerebral Hemorrhage Evacuation (MISTIE) study, a multi-center, Phase III clinical trial designed to test a novel neurosurgical intervention for the treatment of hemorrhagic stroke. This award was the first time JHBC had received direct NIH funding to serve as the Data Coordinating Center (DCC) in support of a major clinical trial. JHBC continued to provide biostatistical support to Johns Hopkins' researchers under the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) renewal. The biostatistics program, under Hopkins' Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), included courses and training, faculty and staff walk-in clinics, and grant reviews. In 2015, a community of Johns Hopkins biostatisticians was developed in partnership with the Department of Biostatistics.

In 2015, Gayane Yenokyan, MD, PhD '09, MHS '09, MPH, transitioned from the position of JHBC Associate Director to interim Executive Director. In 2017, Gayane became JHBC's fourth Executive Director. Under her leadership, JHBC continues with the initiatives established under the previous directors, such as the NIH-funded Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) programs and equity analyses. Gayane continues to foster and develop collaborations between JHBC and Hopkins' researchers and with external opportunities, and to enhance the faculty of JHBC that provide these services. Read Gayane's welcome.