Data Analyst

Simon Yu Tian, B.M., M.Sc., Ph.D.(C)

Institute of Medical Science and The Hospital for Sick Children

University of Toronto

*** *** ******, **** *****

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 0A4

Phone: 416-***-**** (Cellular)

Email: *****.****@****.********.**

Profile:

An expert with over 20 years of experience with proven success in clinical, medical and health research, having achieved extraordinary competency in designing and conducting research studies, with highly developed skills in scientific writing and presentation; Carrying a particular interest and strong ability in clinical research of treatment effectiveness, especially for rare diseases. Also an expert with accumulated hands-on experience and advanced skills in data manipulation, management, statistic computation and analytic programming using R, SAS, Stata and BUGS; with a track record of successful teaching and consulting in biostatistical and research methodology.

Employment History:

The Hospital for Sick Children 2008 - Present

Child Health Evaluative Sciences and Division of Rheumatology;

University of Toronto

Dalla Lana School of Public Health and

Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and

Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine

Teaching and Research Assistant

State-of-the-art statistic methodology applied to clinical research, data analytics, messy data handling, using R, BUGS, SAS and Stata (see Doctor of Philosophy, Education; Publications).

Biostatistics and data analysis for students in the MSc/PhD program at the University of Toronto, using SAS, Stata, R and BUGS (see Teaching).

- Long-term treatment effectiveness for rare diseases (e.g., proliferative lupus nephritis);

- Bias-corrected pediatric estimates of treatment effectiveness (e.g., in childhood-onset autoimmune diseases)

- Study design, conducts, methods and performing;

- Biostatistic algorithms applied to clinical/medical/health research;

- Complex-structured data handling, manipulation, operation and management;

- Statistic computation and programming using R, BUGS;

- Bias-correction methods, causal inference;

- Longitudinal/dependence data analytics;

- Bayesian inference;

- Regression models (e.g., logistic and Poisson probability models), survival analysis, model calibration and validation;

- Data simulation, analytics; data reduction, data mining.

University of Toronto 2007 - 2008

Nursing Health Services Research Unit

Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

Research Officer

Mainly conducted data collection, cleaning, manipulation and derivation; database management and operation; data analysis, statistic computation and programming; using SAS (macro, SQL and other operating, modelling procedures), Stata and R; for the following health services research projects:

- Successfully performed research for: Ontario province-wide chronic care delivery health services study; Canadian nation-wide nursing health services survey; World Health Organization health care delivery survey; College of Nurses of Ontario nurse registry management database;

- Worked closely with multi-disciplinary team members to improve work performance, and assisted them with statistic issues and computational programming;

- Collaborated with multi-disciplinary team members and helped them make significant progress on research projects;

- Effectively conducted interpretation and explanation of data structure, data derivation and statistic analysis for principal investigators and stakeholders, in a multi-disciplinary context;

- Lead discussions over issues raised from data cleaning and combing process;

- Made constructive recommendations on data operation progress, analytic strategy, and on more efficient and productive approaches to a better analytic performance;

- Successfully carried out analytic performance that needed detail-oriented and creative skills;

- Accountable for data accuracy and validity of statistic analysis;

- Responsible for valid data structure and derivation that are ready for analysis and applicable to statistic modelling;

- Expertly performed SAS programming and computational program debugging;

- In honour of my extraordinary contribution to the successful completion of several significant research projects, Head of the Nursing Health Services Research Unit, Dr. Linda O’Brien-Pallas, awarded me $10,000 as an entry scholarship for the start-up of my Ph.D. program when admitted in 2008.

Statistical Consulting, Independent 2006 - Present

At the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children

Statistic Consultant

Biostatistic and research methods, data analytics, using SAS, Stata, R and BUGS.

- Statistic analysis, computation and programming using SAS, Stata, R and BUGS;

- Data manipulation, operation, database design and management;

- Client-oriented consultations/interviews for data collection, data structuralization, dataset finalization, database design, operation and management;

- Client-oriented consultations/interviews for research question formulation, client-engaged analytic approaches, and for client-engaged result/product completion, improvement and optimization.

Qingdao University Medical School, China 1996 - 2001

Department of Neurology

Staff Neurologist

Nervous autoimmune diseases, neuropsychiatric disorders.

(Chemotherapy training for 6 months, Department of Oncology).

Education:

Ph.D., November 2015 (Expected)

Clinical epidemiology, biostatistic methodology and data analytics

- Treatment effectiveness and analytic methodology in rare diseases.

Institute of Medical Science, and The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto

M.Sc., November 2006

Medical science, neuroscience, computerized image analytics (optodensometry, SAS)

Institute of Medical Science, and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, University of Toronto

Bachelor of Medicine, July 1993

Qingdao University Medical School, China

Teaching:

Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH) and Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), and Institute of Medical Science (IMS), Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

I have contributed to the following biostatistics and data analysis courses, as a Teaching Assistant, for students in the MSc/PhD program at the University of Toronto (leading lab tutorial sessions; tutoring and answering questions during office hours, through online portal and by emails; developing lab notes for statistic theories and computational algorithms; designing, conducting and performing analytic strategies, and developing code with examples for studied clinical research questions, using SAS, Stata, R and BUGS; evaluating student performance, grading assignments and exams):

- HAD5316H Biostatistics II: Advanced Techniques in Applied Regression Methods, Prof. J. Charles Victor (IHPME; Winter 2014, 2015)

- CHL5202H Biostatistics for Epidemiologists II, Prof. Kevin E. Thorpe, Rafal Kustra (DLSPH; Winter 2013, 2014, 2015)

- CHL5201H Biostatistics for Epidemiologists I, Prof. Kevin E. Thorpe, Dionne Gesink (DLSPH; Fall 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)

- CHL7001H F3 Data Analysis in Clinical and Population Health Research, Part 1, Prof. Paul N. Corey (DLSPH; Fall 2012)

- Introduction to Applied Statistics, 2011 Summer Workshop Series, Prof. Paul N. Corey (IMS and DLSPH; Summer 2011)

- MSC1090H Biostatistics for Health Scientists I, Prof. Paul N. Corey (IMS; Fall 2010, 2011)

- MSC1060H Biostatistics for Health Scientists II, Prof. Paul N. Corey (IMS; Winter 2010, 2011)

Other Research Experience:

Canadian Network for Improved Outcomes in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus 2006 - 2008

Toronto Western Research Institute, Toronto Western Hospital

University Health Network, University of Toronto

Research Assistant

- Survival and longitudinal event times joint modelling of thrombotic events in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid syndrome (analytics using SAS).

Centre for International Health, Department of Public Health 2006

University of Toronto

Research Analyst

- Database design, management and data analysis for the survey conducted among care-givers for AIDS carriers in Southern Africa, Southern African AIDS Trust, WHO (Microsoft ACCESS and SAS).

Sleep Clinic, Department of Psychiatry 2003

Toronto Western Research Institute, Toronto Western Hospital

University Health Network, University of Toronto

Research Assistant

- Fatigue and sleep disorders – questionnaire survey conducted among Toronto Hydro One shift workers.

Special Training:

- Short Course on Bayesian Inference for Generalized Linear Mixed Models with Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA): An Introduction to INLA and Spatial Markovian Models, University of Western Ontario, Canada (November 2012).

- Methodological Challenges in Public Health Research, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Canada (October 2006).

- Summer Workshop on Modern Applied Methods in Biostatistics, Department of Public Health Sciences and Department of Statistics, University of Toronto, Canada (August 2006).

- Leadership Training Program, Toronto, Canada (May 2002).

Volunteering:

- University of Toronto, International Student Centre, Activity Leader (2006-2007).

- Toronto Family History Library, Administrative Assistant (2003).

- Community Mission, Toronto (2001-2003).

Skills:

I am strong in the following skills:

Health, Medical and Clinical Research

- Systematic review, clinical trials

- Meta-analysis, Bayesian network meta-analysis

- Bias correction methodology for longitudinal observational studies

- Treatment effectiveness in rare diseases

- Experimental and observational study designs

- Computational algorithms used in health and clinical sciences

- Temporal/spatial studies

- Research methodology and scientific writing

- Systemic lupus erythematosus, proliferative lupus nephritis

- Nervous autoimmune disease: myasthenia gravis

- Sleep, mood, neuropsychiatric disorders

Biostatistic and Research Methodology

- Statistic analytics, algorithms, computation and programming

- Correlated/dependent data structure

- Bayesian inference

- Bias-variance correction methodology

- Latent disease state model, interval censorship

- Messy data handling

- Data manipulation, operation, computation, derivation and management

- Data simulation

- Data reduction, data mining

Programming and Syntax

- R; BUGS; SAS; Stata

- Database management (SQL)

- Typesetting (LaTeX2e)

Basic Medical Science (for M.Sc.)

- Computerized image analysis, using optodensometry, SAS

- Neuroplasticity and treatment effects in mood disorders, signaling transduction pathways

- Postmortem human brain, immunohistochemistry

- Western blotting and protein quantification

Interpersonal

- Teaching and consulting

- Interdisciplinary liaison

- Client-oriented product customization

- Organizing, management and leadership

Selected Refereed Publications:

1) Tian SY, Wang JF, Bezchlibenyk YB, Young LT. Immunoreactivity of 43kDa growth-associated protein is decreased in postmortem hippocampus of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Neuroscience Letters 2007;411(2):123-127.

2) Tian SY, Feldman BM, Beyene J, Brown PE, Uleryk EM, Silverman ED. Immunosuppressive therapies for the induction treatment of proliferative lupus nephritis: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. The Journal of Rheumatology 2014;41(10):1998-2007.

3) Tian SY, Feldman BM, Beyene J, Brown PE, Uleryk EM, Silverman ED. Immunosuppressive therapies for the maintenance treatment of proliferative lupus nephritis: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. The Journal of Rheumatology 2015;42(8):1392-1400.

4) Tian SY, Silverman ED, Pullenayegum E, Brown PE, Beyene J, Feldman BM. Effectiveness of mycophenolate mofetil in the treatment of pediatric proliferative lupus nephritis, using a marginal structural model. In Preparation, September 2015.

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