Vocation & vision

Dr. med. Rafael J. A. Cámara

Data scientist since more than 10 years

Qualification in molecular biology

English as familiarised working language

Biennial experience as clinician

Doctor in medical genetics

Diploma in human medicine

French as mother tongue, Spanish as father tongue and German as main language

Summit climb

Stage 1 - Initial impulse

¿What motivates a physician to make science even more attractive, develop study materials, simplify research procedures, optimize the quality of data and analyse it? I admit that scientific research fascinates me since my scholarship. However, this fascination embraced the world of the genes long before that of the numbers.

While most of the medical students absolved their practicums in physician offices and clinical departments planned by the deanery, I convinced the department of medical genetics to create a position of investigation for mine. A Sunday afternoon, the coordinator of the study programme called me to recite my experiences the next morning to the nearly 200 students of the posterior semester. It was the first time that I could share mi passion for scientific research; a formidable sensation.

Stage 2 - Upstream

Statisticians devote themselves increasingly to genetics; with me it was the other way round: I discovered my statistical talent during my genetical dissertation about the Williams-Beuren syndrome, when I described the association between the size of the deletion and the expression of the traits. The deletions are located on chromosome 7. Typical traits are fine bodies and elfin faces with stellar eyes, for which the term «symptoms» sounds inappropriate to me. Compared with other humans, their personality is more communicative, their gift of music and dance more pronounced and their enthusiasm for mathematics more modest. Some see here a possible origin of elfish figures in fables. I discovered that, unless they are microscopically visible, longer deletions go along with the same traits as common deletions. On the figure, one of the two green points is without red point, because the DNA fragment where this would have docked «is missing», which is the genetic distinction between persons with and without Williams-Beuren.

Etapa 3 - Confidence interval

Eighty-two percent of the deletions had the same size, and suddenly I was tempted by a desire - judicious or not - that many physician investigators know: ¡the p-value! Only, defining a null hypothesis for a simple percentage is arbitrary, and so I opted for 50%. As good geneticist and fan of the inventor of the p-value and «father of statistics» Sir Roland Aymler Fisher, who was geneticist, too, I was familiarised with the binomial distribution. So the procedure was very clear for me. Still unsatisfied with the first result, I approximated my null hypothesis successively to 82%, until p was equal to 0,05. As I employed a simple pocket calculator, I needed the entire night. On the recommendation of my thesis director, I consulted a statistician who explained me that my value corresponded to the inferior limit of the exact 95% confidence interval for this percentage. I astonished him with my ability to calculate it without statistics program, and he took me under his wing. I learned much from him.

Etapa 4 - Decision & vision

Little later, I met a head of department passionate for research and with deep knowledge about it. He recognised my talent, made me his scientific assistant, and fed my devotion. After a very productive time in his department, he transmitted me my first employment as official statistician of a globally recognised research institution. From then on, very experienced statisticians and epidemiologists trained me so well that it became my turn to develop the young.

Detailed curriculum vitae

Career

Holder of medscoops® – Health Sciences since 2019/01

Superior methodologist and statistician form 2012/12 to 2018/11 at the Universitätsmedizin Mainz in Germany

  • Adviser of diverse medical services for research issues
  • Collaboration with physicians, pharmacists, economists, psychologists, biologists, …
  • Mentor of bachelor, master and doctoral students
  • Deputy head of the department of epidemiology and health research from 2014/08 to 2016/07
  • Elaboration and revision of study protocols, conception of research
  • Analysis and visualisation of complex data structures
  • Analysis of national clinical studies phase III
  • Elaboration and structuration of scientific articles
  • Recommendations for the clinical practice and the prioritization of investigation
  • Work group: SUCCESS breast cancer study
  • Coordinator of the elective module «Systematic review and meta-analysis»
  • Teacher at the «Master of Science in Epidemiology»: population genetics, good epidemiological and clinical practise, measures of frequency and of association, statistical tests, …
  • Teacher in the medical studies: evidence based medicine, study designs, measures of association, …
  • Elaboration of the practicum «Diagnostik und Screening» for medical students

Biostatistician and advisor for research issues from 2011/04 to 2012/10 at the ISPM of Berna in Switzerland

  • European support of clinicians, statisticians, and methodologists
  • Participation to the meetings of the steering committee
  • Programming of generic reports about the quality of the data of European registries
  • Revision of research processes and elaboration of standard operating procedures
  • Support of knowledge platforms and of education networks
  • Elaboration and revision of study protocols
  • Identification of clinically relevant dependent variables
  • Elaboration and revision of statistical analysis plans
  • Elaboration and publication of modules for the statistics program Stata and evaluator of the Stata Journal
  • Investigation on chorea Huntington and orphan medicaments
  • Investigation on pain and studies about the precision of diagnostic tests
  • Work groups: Clinical Trials Unit Bern y European Huntington´s Disease Network
  • Teacher at the seminary «Clinical investigators II: advanced good clinical practise & clinical research»

Statistical and epidemiologic assistant from 2008/09 to 2011/03 at theUniversitätshospital Bern in Switzerland

  • Education of physician assistants in research and evidence-based medicine
  • Mentor of master students
  • Participation in platforms of exchange of experience
  • Information of patients about the actual state of knowledge
  • Prioritization of research and adaptation to the actual state of necessities
  • Optimisation of global research objectives about mental health
  • Identification of patient-centred outcomes
  • Conceptualisation y calculation of the burden of disease
  • Mediation analysis centred on the adherence to the agreed treatment
  • Literature searches; systematic and narrative review articles
  • Adviser for designs of the studies; plausibility controls and data validation
  • Publications in scientific journals reviewed by peer-experts
  • Work groups: Swiss Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Cohort and Core Project Mental Health
  • Teacher at the journal clubs internal medicine and psychosomatics

Physician assistant in medical genetics from 2008/01 to 2008/07 at theUKBB in Switzerland

Physician assistant in pediatrics from 2007/10 to 2007/12 at the GHOL in Swizerland

  • Inpatient care
  • Emergency room
  • Neonatology

Physician assistant in internal medicine and surgery from 2006/12 à 2007/09 at the SRO in Switzerland

  • Inpatient care
  • Emergency room
  • Assistance during the operations

Doctoral student in medical genetics from 2004/09 to 2006/11 at the UKBB in Switzerland

  • Work with genetic data bases
  • Elaboration of genetic maps
  • Research of genotype-phenotype associations
  • Systematic literature searches
  • DNA-sequencing and genotyping
  • Analyses of the DNA with microsatellite markers
  • Fluorescence in situ hybridisations
  • Presentation at the 11th international congress of human genetics in Brisbane, Australia

Medical practices at the Gemeindehospital Riehen, the Universitäts-Hospital Basel and the UKBB

  • General surgery from 2004/07 to 2004/08
  • Medical genetics from 2004/04 to 2004/06
  • Peadiatrics from 2004/01 to 2004/02
  • Pathology from 2003/12 to 2003/12
  • Internal medicine from 2003/09 to 2003/11

Education

Second best final grade 2011/09 at the Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences in Switzerland

  • Introduction into the cell
  • Genetic mechanisms
  • Bio-molecular methods
  • Inner organisation of the cell
  • Cells in their social context

Doctor degree in 2008/09 at theuniversity of Basel in Switzerland for the thesis «Williams-Beuren-Syndrome: Atypical Clinical Symptoms and Deletion Size»

Diploma in human medicine in 2005/11 at the university of Basel in Switzerland