Faculty
  

Barbara Metch, M.A., M.S.

Barbara Metch is a Senior Statistical Analyst, with a background in clinical trials and social science research. She received her M.A. in Sociology in 1981 and an M.S. in Biostatistics in 1983, both from the University of Washington. She works primarily on HIV vaccine trials, serving as the statistician for the Wyeth, Therion, and Weiner product development teams and as the senior statistician for five Phase I and one Phase II HIV vaccine trials. She worked closely with Dr. Peter Gilbert and Dr. Michael Hudgens on the analyses of the first two Phase III HIV vaccine trials, both conducted by VaxGen. Vax003 evaluated the efficacy of the AIDSVAX B/E vaccine in intravenous drug users in Bangkok, Thailand and Vax004 evaluated AIDSVAX B/B in individuals at high-risk of HIV infection due to sexual exposure in North America and Europe. In addition, Ms. Metch works with network leadership to identify and develop non-U.S. sites for participation in future vaccine trials. She also serves as the statistician for the HVTN Vaccine Preparedness Study being conducted in six countries. Within the SDMC, Ms. Metch provides statistical guidance to the design of data collection, management, and analysis systems. She worked closely with SDMC clinical staff, programmers, and DAIDS medical officers to develop SCHARP's safety monitoring system for Phase I/II HIV vaccine trials and-with regulatory staff, DAIDS, and the DAIDS regulatory contractor-to develop a standard package for IND annual reports.

Ms. Metch has over 20 years of experience in the conduct and analysis of clinical trials. She joined SCHARP (then HIVNET) in 1997 and served as a statistician for HIVNET 014 (a Phase II HIV vaccine trial conducted jointly with AVEG 202) and HIVNET 026 (the first HIV vaccine trial conducted in Brazil, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, and Peru). Prior to joining HIVNET, she was the Analytic Section Manager for the Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial, a Phase III multi-centered lung cancer chemoprevention trial involving 18,000 participants, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Prior to that, she was a statistician with the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), an NCI-funded cancer cooperative group. At SWOG, she served as the statistician for the Head and Neck, Sarcoma, and Cancer Control Research Committees and was a member of the SWOG Statistical Center Policy and Procedures and Protocol Review Committees.