Qilu Yu, Ph.D.

Statistician, Office of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs

6707 Democracy Blvd., Suite 401
Bethesda, MD 20892-5475 (Courier Service – 20817)

Qilu Yu, Ph.D., is a statistician in the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) Office of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs. She serves as a senior collaborator and expert statistical advisor in areas relating to the development and application of statistical techniques to NCCIH-funded clinical trials. She also provides guidance and consultation on design, implementation, and analysis of extramural and intramural studies.

Dr. Yu has more than 15 years of experience planning and implementing the design and analyses of a broad range of clinical research studies. Areas of particular interest and expertise are leading the design of interventional clinical trials, including comparative effectiveness trials, longitudinal and survival analysis with missing data, as well as developing new structural equation modeling to interpret data. She is experienced with planning and analyses of small- to large-scale randomized trials and pragmatic clinical trials, including presentations on interventional clinical trials and methodology to senior stakeholders and the research community.

Prior to joining NCCIH, Dr. Yu served as a senior biostatistician and senior supervisory study director with Westat in Rockville, Maryland. Her work involved research with electronic health records (EHRs) and large databases, including Medicare claims data, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), and the American Hospital Association (AHA) databases; with linking and/or harmonizing databases for studies on diabetes, tobacco use, and chronic diseases in aging and multimorbidity. Projects included broad expertise in methodology for clinical trials and observational studies, as well as international surveys. 

From 2006 to 2011, as a research faculty at the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, Dr. Yu served as codirector of data management and analysis for the Baltimore Experience Corps Study, where she supported trial design and implementation, managed data collection, provided statistical support, and supported a data safety and monitoring board and quality control efforts. At Johns Hopkins, she also provided support for randomized clinical trials, comparative effectiveness research, and other types of studies and taught in the School of Medicine.

Dr. Yu earned a B.S. in biology from the University of Science and Technology of China, completed graduate coursework in computational biology and genetics at The Pennsylvania State University, earned an M.S. in biostatistics from the State University of New York at Albany, and earned a Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of California at Davis. She has coauthored numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, as well as presentations delivered at professional meetings.