BAMBIE is aimed at all scientists and students of Faculty VI and the cooperating hospitals. Our focus is on young clinical scientists. However, everyone is welcome. 

• Doctoral students at Faculty VI and the cooperating hospitals
• Medical students in research projects
• Other employees and members of the faculty and the hospitals in Oldenburg

We recommend that the qualifier and supervisor both take part in the initial consultation. This is particularly important if there are still uncertainties in the study design or the research question, or if the supervisor has their own ideas about what the consultation should entail. For smaller standard problems, however, students can also come alone, provided they already have sufficient methodological knowledge (e.g. from the DAP).

The consultation service is a structural offer of the faculty, which is available to you free of charge. In principle, you can seek advice several times and in every phase of a project. However, we reserve the right to introduce a quota per project phase in the event of bottlenecks etc. 

This is explicitly a low-threshold consultation aimed primarily at people with little previous statistical knowledge. However, advice is not useful if there is not at least a minimum level of knowledge of both the planned project and the basics of the evaluation methodology. This is usually the case for students who have successfully completed the DAP. However, it is conceivable that we may have to suspend a consultation in individual cases until appropriate basic knowledge has been acquired. In addition, there may be minimum requirements for the quality of the data, without which an evaluation would not make sense. We will provide separate information on this. 

Everything you already have in terms of study documents helps us to prepare for the consultation. Depending on the project phase and type, this includes, for example, the call for proposals, a study outline, ethics application and, if applicable, vote, study protocol, analysis plan, draft manuscript, reviewer comments, etc. During the registration process, you will be asked to upload the available documents. It is therefore best to have them ready for the appointment. The data itself is not required, as we do not undertake any evaluations. Please ensure that all documents do not contain any patient or subject-related personal data. 

We provide support for straightforward statistical and epidemiological problems in the planning, application, evaluation, interpretation and publication of medical and medical-related projects. Our main areas of expertise are clinical epidemiology and biometrics.

We do not provide consultations on qualitative research, artificial intelligence, machine learning, genome analysis and/or other big data topics. For technical support (software, IT solutions, anonymization, data protection) and medical law, please also refer to other relevant services offered by the university or faculty. 

Counseling is helping you to help yourself. Evaluations, transcripts etc. must therefore be carried out by those seeking advice themselves. An exception to this is case number planning, which can be carried out by BAMBIE on request and if all the necessary information is available. 

Anja Hülsmann (75 %) and Dominik de Sordi (25 %) carry out the consultations and other tasks in teaching and science. As the structure is still being set up and training is required, both will initially provide advice together or together with the head of department, Prof. Antje Timmer. In the foreseeable future, a new experienced member of staff will take on supervisory tasks at BAMBIE. 

Staff resources do not allow for full supervision of low-threshold counseling. Above all, however, the implementation by those seeking advice is beyond our control. The responsibility for the correctness of the evaluations and the integrity of the data handling therefore remains with the person seeking advice. 

A standard consultation does not per se constitute a service that qualifies for co-authorship. However, project managers are free to offer co-authorship to BAMBIE employees. In this case, both the statistician and, if applicable, his/her supervisor and the head of the EuB department must be given sufficient time to make any necessary corrections.

We would be pleased to receive an acknowledgement or mention of statistical advice from BAMBIE. However, this must also be explicitly approved by the employee concerned as well as by the head of department or an authorized senior employee and can also be rejected. 

The institute in Münster will continue to be available for a transitional phase. Anyone who is authorized to consult there can therefore continue to contact the colleagues directly. This is particularly useful if a project has already been advised, if the signature of a biometrician is required (e.g. DFG application) or if it is a study from the AMG/MPDG area.

To make a request in Münster, please use the application form available here: https://www.medizin.uni-muenster.de/fileadmin/einrichtung/ibkf/dokumente/Beratungsformular_2021_interaktiv_v4.pdf

We provide a registration portal Anmeldeformular BAMBIE, which you can access via the website of the KKS, the Biomedicum UOL and our department. During the registration process, we collect some data that we need for the assignment to the consultation and our performance checks. You can also upload existing documents here as part of the process. Ideally, your project should have an acronym. If necessary, we will assign an ID that you can refer to for follow-up consultations.

Consultation appointments will be offered, which you can sign up for. Please allow approx. 1 hour for a more detailed initial consultation and approx. 30 minutes for standard appointments and, depending on the complexity, allow sufficient time for preparation. If none of the appointments are suitable, you have the option of suggesting your own appointments. We will then contact you with a proposed date. 

Consulting Appointments

The advisory function does not provide for a biometrician to take over analyses or more complex analysis planning. However, depending on the personnel valences, competences and scientific interest of the employees concerned and the department, this is possible in the sense of scientific cooperation. Please contact us if necessary. This can be done as part of the consultation or by contacting us separately.

Ms. Hülsmann and Mr. de Sordi will always try to adapt to your particular situation and continue to train themselves. Should any problems arise, please contact the head of department (Antje Timmer). We will try to find a solution together. 

We provide helpful links and resources on our website. In addition, we plan to offer more tutorials for patient-oriented research methods (TuMPFs), which include refresher and extension courses.

You can also find helpful online courses via the Coursera platform, for example.

Yes, only the members of the Biometrics service unit have access to the project documents and information from the consultations. This includes the two BAMBIE employees, the head of department, the team assistant if required and any senior employees who are yet to be hired to supervise and advise the advisory team. 

We offer consultations in our department (Ammerländer Heerstrasse 138, V03, A wing, 1st floor), in the same wing as the KKS. Online consultation hours will also be offered. Some of the staff can also come to you to get to know you. The best way to contact us is via the portal Anmeldeformular BAMBIE.

We can also be contacted by . The best person to contact by telephone is our team assistant, Ms. Schrand.