On September 1, the new department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics of the VU University Medical Centre will be officially launched. Last week the personnel of the department held an introductory meeting in which the organisation and leadership of the department was presented. This new department is the result of a merger between the departments of Extramural Medicine, with its strong focus on epidemiology in the extramural setting, and the department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, with its strong focus on supporting research of the VUmc in clinical settings. With the new department, most expertise on research methodology and statistics within the VUmc is now concentrated within one department. The mission of the new department of E&B is to initiate, conduct and support excellent research in support of the five research themes of the VU University Medical Center (http://www.english.vumc.nl/research/). The department of E&B has three sections: extramural epidemiology, clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, and four main tasks: research, education, methodology development, and methodological and biostatistical support. The logo and the organisation of the new department is presented in the attached pictures.
