Profile of Dr. Kamatani

Introduction

Institute for Data Analysis (IDA) was founded in August 2008 as an intra-company venture complex in StaGen Co. Ltd. The institute started when Naoyuki Kamatani, M.D., Ph.D. who had established fame in the fields of genetics, medicine, pharmacogenetics and informatics moved from the director of Institute of Rheumatology, Tokyo Women's Medical University to StaGen.
World is definitely directing toward the "information-oriented society". Based on the information as well as science and technology, human lives have become more convenient, comfortable and the life spans have been largely extended. However, the size of the information has become quite huge during the last 10 years, and, it sometimes overwhelms the people who receive it. On the other hand, people can make smart decisions by taking good advantage of the huge information. Such smart decisions are useful to avoid risks, get chances and win competitions. In developed countries, the business that makes good use of such huge information is rapidly growing.
The technologies that take good advantage of the huge information include statistics and informatics. The Institute for Data Analysis (IDA) has been established for the purpose of "making good use of data for decisions".

Targets of IDA

The focus of the research and service of IDA is the solution of the problems with "seriousness" and "uncertainty". Serious problems include, for example, human lives, destiny of organization, property and policy. Such serious problems are often uncertain. Although they are uncertain, they cannot be left undecided. The aims of IDA are to develop the technologies to provide assistance to make decisions for serious and uncertain problems, and to apply the technologies to such problems.
We think that the only basis for making decisions for "serious and uncertain" problems is "logic and calculation", both of which can be obtained by the extensive analyses of the data available. The bases other than "logic and calculation" include "intuition", "sense", "taste", "mood", "fortune-telling", and "interest"; however, any of them is quite problematic. The decisions based on such methods without objectivity will invite confusions and further problems.

Business of IDA

A. Development of technologies for data analysis
There are many good technologies for data analysis based on statistics and informatics; however, new technologies are required to cope with huge data sets recently produced. IDA continues to develop technologies optimized to new types of data produced.

B. Data analysis on request
　 We answer to the requests of data analysis from such fields as medicine, clinical pharmacology, biology and genetics. We may answer to the requests from other fields also, if they are judged to be possible with reliability after the consultation. We also write manuscripts, answer to the reviewers and make documents to be submitted to the regulation office.

C. Education of data analysis
　 We provide education of the technologies for data analysis. We use simulated and real data to let the customers understand the practical usage of the technologies as well as learn mathematical theories. We lead customers to a deep understanding of not only the procedures of the analyses but also the meanings of the analyses.

D. Fields in focus

1. Construction of databases and data management
　We make databases and perform data management. Data management is a procedure to check the consistency of the data and clean the database. To make the database really useful for the smart decisions, good data management is always necessary.

2. Statistical analysis
　After understanding the data themselves and the background of them deeply, we perform "statistical testing", "estimation of parameters" and "prediction of outcomes".

3. Medical and technical writing
We not only make documents, but, on requests, also write manuscripts, answer to the reviewers and make documents to be submitted to the regulation office.

Profile of Dr. Kamatani