Bridging Data and Health
By Mo Perry
The son of a radiologist and a nurse, Ivan Chan (PhD’ 1995) grew up in China with half of his family home functioning as a medical facility. There was a dark room for developing X-ray images and space for X-ray diagnostics. By day, the family’s living room was converted into a reception area for patients.
“I guess the concept of helping patients runs in my DNA,” Chan says.
Chan has pursued that calling to help patients in various roles at leading pharmaceutical companies, including Merck and AbbVie. In his current role as Vice President, Head of Oncology Biostatistics at Bristol Myers Squibb, his work focuses on the clinical development of novel medicines for patients with cancers.
Chan’s family moved to Hong Kong when he was 13 years old. Growing up, Chan displayed a love for mathematics and a knack for making sense of numbers—a passion that led him to pursue statistics. At 24, he received his MS in Hong Kong and set his sights on the University of Minnesota School of Public Health’s division of Biostatistics & Health Data Science for his PhD. “It was at the School of Public Health that I learned how we can use statistics to help medical research and ultimately help patients down the road,” says Chan.
His arrival in Minneapolis at the beginning of the fall semester in 1991 marked his first time on U.S. soil. Just a couple months later, the infamous Halloween blizzard struck. “I didn’t have any winter gear—no gloves, boots, or anything. And I remember having to walk 30 minutes from my dorm over to SPH to take a test on Saturday morning right after the big snow. By the time I got there, my feet were all wet and frozen. I had to take off my shoes and socks and warm up my hands enough to be able to take the test.”
But Minnesota also delivered some warmth. The first Thanksgiving that Chan and his wife (who had also come from Hong Kong to pursue a second degree at UMN) spent in the U.S., they had nowhere to go. “But the University was kind enough to arrange for local families to have international students over for a really warm Thanksgiving dinner,” Chan recalls. “The hospitality of people in Minnesota is really memorable.”
He also remembers the influence of several professors on his academic journey, including his advisor, Dan Zelterman, who taught a course on categorical data analysis. This course not only expanded Chan’s statistical knowledge but also sparked his interest in addressing complex data challenges in healthcare research. A course led by Professor Jim Neaton gave Chan insight into the critical role that biostatistics plays in designing, conducting, and analyzing clinical trials.
His time as a research assistant at the Coordinating Center for Biometric Research (CCBR) exposed him to the practical applications of biostatistics in the context of HIV clinical trials. He was tasked with analyzing patient data from clinical trials, designing programs for patient randomization, and creating data visualization tools. “When I go back to visit [SPH], people say, ‘Hey, I know you from the program you wrote that I’m still using at the CCBR!’ I was just a student when I wrote these things, but people still find them useful many years later, which is great,” Chan says.
After graduating from SPH, Chan joined the pharmaceutical industry and he has been leading teams of biostatisticians who collaborate with physicians to design clinical studies that evaluate the safety and efficacy of new drugs. One of his most impactful experiences came during his tenure at Merck, where he led the statistical team supporting vaccine projects. He was the lead project statistician for a herpes zoster vaccine, collaborating with organizations such as Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health on a pivotal phase III trial involving 38,000 people. When the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) delivered the news of the vaccine’s demonstrated efficacy, he was overjoyed. “All that hard work pays off when you know millions of people around the world will be protected by the vaccine,” Chan says.
Today, Chan is at the forefront of emerging trends in the pharmaceutical industry, continuously exploring innovative methodologies for trial designs, leveraging real-world data and cloud computing, and harnessing the power of AI and machine learning to accelerate clinical drug development. At Bristol Myers Squibb, Chan’s team has implemented novel adaptive designs in several clinical trials to evaluate new medicines to help patients suffering from cancers and blood diseases. Chan was very excited to see his team’s innovative work has helped accelerate the approval of the first-in-class anemia drug, Reblozyl, as a treatment for adults who may require regular red blood cell transfusions.
And he’s giving back to the School of Public Health by serving as an external advisor for the division of Biostatistics & Health Data Science, hoping to share his expertise as the school envisions the future of the program. “I’m very happy to have the opportunity to share that kind of insight and experience with the division,” he says.
One of the key lessons he wants to impart is summed up by a quote from Benjamin Franklin: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
