GW Nursing Magazine Summer 2018

feature | different perspectives improve care
/ biostatistician n. maritza dowling is a leading researcher in alzheimer’s disease.
reframing
alzheimer’s research
Taking a fresh look at problems can bring new approaches
to the increasingly complex issues encountered in today’s
health care environment. At GW Nursing, researchers,
practitioners and students of different backgrounds look
through a new lens to improve quality of care and provide
data for policies that will inform that care.
Assistant Professor N. Maritza Dowling
is analyzing information that could forge
medical breakthroughs in treating a disease
that affects twice as many women as men.
She is studying cognitive data collected from
postmenopausal women on hormone therapy.
A biostatistician by training, her job is to
make sense of the data, turning statistics
into knowledge.
“Developments in medicine must
necessarily be based on evidence,”
Dr. Dowling said. “The vital linkages
between accumulated empirical data and
the generation of alternative explanations
of observed phenomena require systematic
scientific analysis that can’t occur without
numbers and rigorous statistical
methodology and research design. The
solutions for many complex problems in
medical and clinical research are made
possible by statistical methods.”
Dr. Dowling’s work is part of a fiveyear,
$10.8 million study— “Prevention of
Alzheimer’s Disease in Women: Risks and
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