Medicine and healthcare as we know them today could not exist without Biostatisticians. As the name implies – bio -“life,” and statistics – “collecting and analyzing large amount of data,”– Biostatisticians gather and analyze data related to how biological factors like infectious diseases and pathogens impact human health. This can include gathering and analyzing data about:

A disease’s lethality and contagiousness
A population’s response to active ingredients in a new pharmacological drug
Medical research studies and clinical trials
The effectiveness of a public health campaign or initiative

As you can expect, biostatisticians play a tremendously important role in public health. Major areas where biostatistics is vitally important within public health include:

Nutrition and public well-being programs
Health services research
Development of healthcare policy and management

Careers in biostatistics are wide ranging. Advancing in your job becomes possible with more education and more experience. Getting started in this field typically requires a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.

Step 1 – Get a Relevant Bachelor’s Degree

Getting your foot in the door in the biostatistics field can start with a bachelor’s degree. You’ll find many different job titles and corresponding relevant undergraduate degrees, and every employer in the government or private sector sets its own education requirements. Here are some examples of job titles and their corresponding bachelor’s degrees:

Data manager – Bachelor’s in biostatistics, statistics, epidemiology, mathematics, or public health
Data analyst – Bachelor’s focusing on biostatistics, health care policy, data science, statistics, or health care economics
Research technician for a program evaluating the immune response to tuberculosis – Bachelor’s in a related science area
Cytometry technologist – Bachelor’s in any lab sciences
Associate clinical data analyst – Bachelor’s in a data analysis field like biostatistics, statistics, or data science
Study coordinator – Bachelor’s in public health or medical research
Research technician – Bachelor’s in biochemistry, molecular biology, anatomy and physiology, or pharmacology
Clinical research assistant – Bachelor’s in biostatistics, chemistry, biochemical engineering, or pharmaceutical sciences

You’ll find that biostatistician as a job title doesn’t typically show up at the bachelor’s level. But that doesn’t have to stop you from getting a relevant bachelor’s degree and gaining valuable work experience. Having those two strengths on your résumé will make transitioning into a master’s-level program and then landing a job as a biostatistician easier.

Step 2 – Get a Master’s Degree in Biostatistics or a Closely Related Field

Working as a full-fledged biostatistician usually requires a master’s-level education in biostatistics or a closely related field. The following are some general examples of pairings of career titles with their typically requisite master’s-level education programs:

Biostatistician – Master’s in biostatistics or statistics
Data analyst with a public health department – Master’s in biostatistics, epidemiology, public health, or health science
Data analyst fellow with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Master’s degree in computer science, communications and graphics design, in the social and behavioral sciences, mathematics, or statistics
Clinical data analyst – Master’s in biostatistics, epidemiology, information/computer systems, health services, or public health
Bioinformatician – Master’s in biostatistics or bioinformatics
Junior epidemiologist/analyst with a public health surveillance system – Master’s in biostatistics, public health, epidemiology, health informatics, or statistics
Epidemiologist – Master’s in biostatistics, epidemiology, or public health
Epidemiologist statistical programmer – Master’s in epidemiology, statistics, biostatistics, public health, or math
Senior data manager – Master’s degree in biostatistics, statistics, mathematics, epidemiology, or public health

A master’s degree in biostatistics is an industry standard entry-level requirement if you want to work as a biostatistician. You’ll also find that many jobs in this field require or prefer relevant work experience. You can get this after your undergraduate education, as part of a master’s program’s internship or residency, or even as part of on-the-job training for a biostatistician position.

Advance Your Career and Apply For Senior-Level Positions With a Doctoral Degree

If not an outright requirement for your selected career in biostatistics, earning a doctoral-level education will place you in the best-possible strategic position for career advancement and promotion, especially when combined with relevant work experience.

The following are some examples of job titles in the biostatistics field and their typically associated education requirements:

Clinical researcher – MD, PhD, or PharmD
Professor of biostatistics – Doctoral degree in biostatistics, data science, applied mathematics, or statistics
Senior epidemiologist – Doctoral degree in biostatistics or epidemiology
Research associate with a public health department or pharmaceutical company – Doctoral degree in biostatistics or statistics
Public health statistician – Doctoral degree in biostatistics or statistics
Senior biostatistician – PhD in biostatistics or statistics
Epidemiology and information science fellow with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Doctoral degree in fields like computer science, life health sciences, medical sciences, mathematics, or statistics

Work environments in biostatistics

The US Department of Labor tracks biostatisticians as a sub-set of general statisticians. It reports that most (52%) work in the following sectors:

16% work in scientific research and development services
11% work with federal government agencies
9% work with management, scientific, and technical consulting services
7% work in general medical and surgical hospitals
6% work in computer systems design and related services
3% work in pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing

Resources: Professional and government agencies for biostatisticians

International Society for Clinical Biostatistics (ISCB)
Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology (CBIC)
American Public Health Association (APHA)
International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE)
American College of Epidemiology (ACE)
American Society of Preventative Oncology (ASPO)
World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA)
World Health Organization (WHO)
Society for Epidemiological Research (SER)
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE)
International Epidemiological Association (IEA)
CDC index of all state health departments
American Statistical Association (ASA)
ASA Health Policy Section
ASA Mental Health Section
ASA Genomes and Genetics Section
ASA Epidemiology Section
ASA Environment Section
ASA Biopharmaceutical Section
ASA Biometrics Section

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