Evidence Based Medicine Thread in the College of Medicine Legacy Curriculum: Biostatistics Course

The Biostatistics course is part of the EBM thread of the COM curriculum.

Course Director: Kris Baughman, Ph.D.

Asst. Course Director: Rebecca Fischbein, Ph.D.

HSC I Research Design lecture

• Research design example articles:
  • cross-sectional study: Slopen N, Shonkoff JP, Albert MA, Yoshikawa H, Jacobs A, Stoltz R, Williams DR. Racial Disparities in Child Adversity in the US: Interactions with family immigration history and income. Am J Prev Med, 2006, 50(1):47-56. http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/davidrwilliams/files/child_adversity.pdf
  • case- control study: Cannegieter SC, Doggen CJM, van Houwelingen HC, Rosendaal FR (2006) Travel-Related Venous Thrombosis: Results from a Large Population-Based Case Control Study (MEGA Study). PLoS Med 3(8): e307. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030307. http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030307#s
  • cohort study: Punjabi NM, Caffo BS, Goodwin JL, Gottlieb DJ, Newman AB, et al. (2009) Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS Med 6(8): e1000132. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000132. http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/asset?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000132.PDF
  • qualitative study: Fisher JA, Kalbaugh CA (2012) United States Private-Sector Physicians and Pharmaceutical Contract Research: A Qualitative Study. PLoS Med 9(7): e1001271. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001271. http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/asset?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001271.PDF
  • diagnosis/screening article: Sabetta JR, Smardin J, Burns L, Barry L, Baisley C, Mahoney T, Travers D, Brennan T, Fontana J, Rabatsky-Ehr T, Cartter ML. Performance of Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Tests During Two School Outbreaks of 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection --- Connecticut, 2009. Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report Sept. 25, 2009/ 58(37): 1029-1032. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5837a1.htm
  • randomized control study: Harding K, Sumner M, Cardinal M. A prospective, multicentre, randomised controlled study of human fibroblast-derived dermal substitute (Dermagraft) in patients with venous leg ulcers. International Wound Journal, 2013; 10(2): 132-7. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/iwj.12053/epdf

• HSC III & IV
• M3 & M4 years
  • Including PBLI presentations

This course provides an introduction to statistical concepts used in clinical studies. Topics include research designs, descriptive and inferential statistics, epidemiology measures, correlation and regression techniques, hypothesis testing, and diagnostic test accuracy. Students will learn how to understand, interpret, and critically evaluate evidence from clinical studies. The focus will be on understanding and interpreting statistics in the scientific literature rather than how to analyze data.

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

1. Describe the following approaches to clinical research design and common statistical tests used in these studies: meta-analyses, systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, case-control studies, cohort studies, descriptive studies, and qualitative studies.
2. Calculate and interpret standard EBM measures such as number needed to treat, number needed to harm, event rates, relative risk, odds ratios, sensitivity, and specificity.
3. Distinguish between nominal, ordinal, and interval types of measurement and indicate which statistical tests are appropriate for each type of measurement.
4. Interpret the risk of disease based on results from diagnostic and screening tests.
5. Describe Type I and Type II errors and how they affect the statistical significance and power of a test.
6. Distinguish between null and alternative hypotheses, state the basic steps of hypothesis testing, and interpret confidence levels.
7. Evaluate the clinical literature to estimate the probability of drugs and treatments benefiting or harming patient populations.

CLASS RESOURCES: