Applying a medical budget system to biostatistics clinics.
Biostatistics are indispensable in clinical medicine because doctors increasingly need to publish and understand medical articles that use statistical methods. An opportunity is needed for medical doctors to interact with biostatisticians on statistical issues. This paper's objective is to determine how much it costs to establish a biostatistics clinic and what revenue is required to run the clinic. A balance sheet was used to outline the revenue and expenses of a statistics clinic using a simple method introduced by the author. Expenses for personnel, material, and tenancy costs were 41.9, 18.1, and 25.1% of the total, respectively. To run, the biostatistics clinic required 200 research design engagements, 1200 h of hourly consultation, and 6600 h of data processing. To acquire scientific grants, each of four biostatisticians had to write one academic paper annually. The results show that a biostatistics clinic could be managed profitably based on the assumptions in this study.
Makie
Toshio
T
Department of Biometry and Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Cannon Street, Suite 302G, PO Box 250835, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA. makie@musc.edu
D001699:Biometry; D002017:Budgets / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D008331:Management Information Systems; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000191:economics*