The Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology (DBE) was created in 1994 to provide an academic home for biostatisticians and non-clinician epidemiologists, and an academic structure to support primary research in biostatistics and epidemiology.

In February 2017 the DBE was renamed to include a third discipline. Now the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, it is one of the few medical-school departments that span such breadth. The faculty members in its Divisions of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics pursue better fundamental knowledge of health and disease by working closely together to develop new thinking and novel methods.

The DBEI is currently led by Chair Enrique F. Schisterman, PhD. Susan Ellenberg, PhD, served as interim Chair immediately following the period from 2013 to 2019, when the Department was led by Harold I. Feldman, MD, MSCE. Dr. Feldman was preceded by the DBE’s founding director, Brian Strom, MD, MPH.