A Company developed in part by ITHS biostatistician acquired by Johnson & Johnson

Bryan Comstock, MS, a senior biostatistician and consultant with ITHS, was recently highlighted by the UW Department of Biostatistics for his role in developing Crowd-Sourced Assessment of Technical Skills (C-SATS), a new platform for evaluating surgical skills. The article titled, “Biostat grad among co-founders of digital platform to improve surgical skills,” explains how reviewing a surgery by video tape can help reduce high cost and time burdens of surgical evaluation.

“C-SATS was formally formed in 2014 with the goal of benefiting patients and healthcare overall by improving outcomes and reducing costs,” the article says, acknowledging that the company was inspired by a study design consultation that came through the UW Center for Biomedical Statistics (CBS). The analytics-based platform was built in partnership between a biostatistician, two engineers, a pediatric surgeon, and a business partner.

ITHS works closely with the CBS to connect investigators with biostatisticians at any stage of their project, from the initial study design stage to the final reporting phase. ITHS subsidizes initial consultation with a biostatistician to understand the project needs and depth. These initial conversations help ITHS personnel connect researchers with the expertise needed to further their studies. As a multi-institutional, cross-disciplinary organization, ITHS often serves as a catalyst to bring teams together in search of new tools and research solutions. This project is just one example of the types of collaborations which can be formed in part thanks to the infrastructure established by ITHS.