MOHAMMAD Turning data into knowledge Meet our expert in biostatistics

Biostatistics is the scientific discipline concerned with how we ought to make decisions when analysing biomedical data. It is central to all of science, as all science needs evidence to be gathered, but it’s the evaluation of the evidence that is critical to forming judgements.

The experts behind this science, biostatisticians, are responsible for making the connections, or finding a lack thereof, in the data. These are both equally important outcomes when answering pressing research questions such as whether a new drug works, what causes cancer and other diseases and how long a person with a certain illness is likely to survive. Biostatisticians play pivotal roles from the beginning to the end of studies, guiding study design and ensuring enough data and the right kind of information is being collected, as well as participating in the analysis, evaluation and interpretation of results.

Professor Mohammad Asghari-Jafarabadi joined Cabrini Research in April 2022 as the resident biostatistician for all research teams. An absolutely critical role for the research we undertake, Cabrini was incredibly excited to have Mohammad join the team, as he brings an enormous wealth of knowledge and experience, and is highly respected in his field.

Mohammad completed his PhD in biostatistics in 2010, through the School of Medicine at Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), Tehran, Iran. He was subsequently employed as the lecturer in biostatistics at one of the most prestigious universities in Iran, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (TBZMED), Tabriz, Iran. Here, he has been involved in teaching advanced courses in biostatistics, software and modelling, as well as serving as a Board member for the Biostatistics in Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran. He also supervised multiple postgraduate students to their thesis completion and dissertation and is an editorial Board member of the leading international journals PONE and HPP.

In addition to his academic role at TBZMED, Mohammad has collaborated with a wide variety of research teams

– in various medical, life and health science fields – to design research projects and establish new data modelling options. In research, publications and the number of times these are cited are very important metrics that identify top researchers. Mohammad is considered an internationally outstanding researcher, with more than 800 research publications and 12,776 citations. In 2020, he was named as one of the world’s most influential researchers on the Highly Cited Researchers list from Clarivate Analytics. The list recognises world-class researchers selected for their exceptional research performance, demonstrated by the production of multiple, highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for a given field in the last decade in Web of Science.

Following his goal to work and collaborate with scientists and researchers around the world in different areas of science, Mohammad made the decision to move with his family to Australia, landing in March 2022. At Cabrini, he is looking forward to opportunities to work with leaders in the healthcare research field, be a part of Cabrini’s growth in research and to work collaboratively and build networks with our partners at Monash University.

Mohammad feels the best advice he could give someone who is planning a project is captured by the famous Iranian poet Hafez:

The love seems to be easy in the first glance, but then the obstacles show up themselves on the way.

“Innovation and motivation are essential for successful projects, but other criteria are also incredibly important,” he says.

“You need to consider securing sufficient funding, the ability to bring together a collaborative team, the feasibility of its delivery and a good level of internal validity.

“If your objectives, research design and methodology, data collection and analysis are not well designed, all the innovation in the world will mean nothing.

“Bioststatistics needs to be a part of any successful research team and project.”