Beth J. Atkinson, M.S.

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SUMMARY

Elizabeth (Beth) J. Atkinson is a principal biostatistician and assistant professor of biostatistics in the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at Mayo Clinic. She collaborates with a wide range of investigators using methodologies ranging from clinical trials to epidemiology to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and other analyses of "omics" data.

Atkinson has collaborated with Mayo Clinic's Osteoporosis and Bone Biology Laboratory for more than 30 years and is now working with several other research programs within Mayo Clinic's Kogod Center on Aging.

Additionally, she helps support the Genomic and Exposomic Hepatobiology Laboratory, led by Konstantinos N. Lazaridis, M.D.

Focus areas

• R software. Atkinson has been instrumental in local support of the R software environment and maintains the widely used rpart package. She currently sits on the planning committee for the R/Medicine conference.
• Survival analysis methodology. Atkinson is currently collaborating with Terry M. Therneau, Ph.D., and Cynthia (Cindy) S. Crowson, Ph.D., on a new survival analysis book, as well as updating the survival package within the R software environment.
• Aging. Atkinson is involved with various studies attempting to better understand the biological aging process and the influence of multiple comorbidities on that process.

Significance to patient care

In the genetics projects, the goal of Atkinson and colleagues is to identify a series of genetic factors that, when combined with known lifestyle factors, lead to better detection and treatment of specific medical conditions.

Atkinson's work in osteoporosis has the potential to significantly impact how patients with osteoporosis are diagnosed and treated.