The Center for Outcomes Research (COR) at Houston Methodist is anchored at Houston Methodist Research Institute and functions in partnership with Weill Cornell Medical College and in collaboration with Texas A&M University School of Public Health. Under the leadership of director Bita A. Kash, PhD, MBA, FACHE, and co-director Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH, COR drives fundamental improvements in patient outcomes for patients treated in acute-care settings and throughout the cycle of their care in the ambulatory setting and their communities. Key areas of research include health services research, health economics, industrial and systems engineering, and health care management.

The mission of the Center for Outcomes Research is to conduct applied team research, develop researchers, and exert national leadership towards improved health outcomes for diverse patient populations by:

• Designing,
• Testing & validating, and
• Implementing innovations in health care delivery.

COR offers statistical support by providing consultations for study design and analyses to grant/contract-supported research teams and clinical research groups through a cost recovery model. Statistical personnel specialize in research project statistical design and conceptualization, development of specific aims and hypotheses, statistical power and sample size determination, data analyses plans, missing data analytic procedures, inferential hypothesis testing with parametric/non-parametric tests, univariate and multivariate regression modeling with diagnostics and multicollinearity assessment, generalized linear models, categorical data analysis, repeated measurements analysis, time-to-event survival data analyses, longitudinal data analysis, multilevel/mixed model analysis, hierarchical modeling, multivariate analysis, factor analysis, nonparametric modeling and analysis, data cleaning, coding and merging, psychometrics, survey design, survey data analysis and data mining. For statistical software, Stata is used for the bulk of analytic analyses, and PASS is used for power and sample size determination. COR has also acquired a license to the geographic information system ArcGIS desktop software (by Esri) for mapping and analytics.

LEADING HEALTH OUTCOMES BY DESIGN