Jay Mandrekar, Ph.D.

Jay Mandrekar, Ph.D., is the primary statistician for the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurology, and the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology. He is involved in multiple clinical trials, population-based studies and research grants in these areas.

Dr. Mandrekar's primary research interest is in the application and extension of statistical methods for the evaluation of the quality and domains of clinical teaching, multiple sclerosis and other neurologic diseases, prosthetic joint infections, and assays for viral detection.

Focus areas

• Factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis
• Generalized estimating equations
• Regression methods
• Macros for statistical procedures

Significance to patient care

The application of appropriate — and sometimes sophisticated — statistical approaches to data from well-conducted clinical trials, laboratory experiments and database studies have produced practice-changing results, such as the implementation of some viral detection assays and improved clinical management of patients with neurologic disease at Mayo Clinic.

Along the same lines, the application of factor analysis and principal components analysis allowing for correlated data has helped to further the understanding of the underlying factor structure in questionnaires administered to assess, for example, resident doctors' reflections on quality improvement.

Professional highlights

• Biostatistics Editor, Cephalalgia, 2008-present
• Standing Member, Cancer Immunopathology and Immunotherapy Study Section, National Cancer Institute, 2008-present
• Co-Director, Biostatistics Workshop at 15th Congress of the International Headache Society, 2011
• Co-Director, Biostatistics Workshop at World Federation of Neurology Headache Research Group, 2010