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Understanding Clinical Research: Behind the Statistics
  • Level Foundation
  • Duration 27 hours
  • Course by University of Cape Town
  • Offered by

About

If you’ve ever skipped over the results section of a medical paper because terms like “confidence interval” or “p-value” go over your head, then you’re in the right place. You may be a clinical practitioner reading research articles to keep up-to-date with developments in your field or a medical student wondering how to approach your own research. Greater confidence in understanding statistical analysis and the results can benefit both working professionals and those undertaking research themselves. If you are simply interested in properly understanding the published literature or if you are embarking on conducting your own research, this course is your first step. It offers an easy entry into interpreting common statistical concepts without getting into nitty-gritty mathematical formulae. To be able to interpret and understand these concepts is the best way to start your journey into the world of clinical literature. That’s where this course comes in - so let’s get started! The course is free to enroll and take. You will be offered the option of purchasing a certificate of completion which you become eligible for, if you successfully complete the course requirements. This can be an excellent way of staying motivated! Financial Aid is also available.

Modules

Welcome to the course

    • 2 Videos
    • 2 Readings
    • 1 Discussion
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1 Discussions

  • Introduce yourself

2 Videos

  • Introduction to Understanding Clinical Research
  • About the course

2 Readings

  • How this course works
  • Pre-course survey

What are the different clinical study types?

    • 7 Videos
    • 8 Readings
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: Study types

7 Videos

  • Observing and intervening: Observational & experimental studies
  • Observing and describing: Case series studies
  • Comparing groups: Case-control studies
  • Collecting data at one point in time: Cross-sectional studies
  • Studying a group with common traits: Cohort studies
  • Let's intervene: Experimental studies
  • Working with existing research: Meta-analysis and Systematic Review

8 Readings

  • Study types
  • Key notes: Observational and experimental studies
  • Key notes: Case series studies
  • Key notes: Case-control studies
  • Key notes: Cross-sectional studies
  • Key notes: Cohort studies
  • Key notes: Experimental studies
  • Key notes: Meta-analysis and systematic review

Navigating clinical research: Peer review exercise

    • 2 Videos
    • 1 Readings
    • 1 PeerReview
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1 Peer Review

  • Week 1: Navigating Clinical Research

2 Videos

  • Doing a literature search: Part 1
  • Doing a literature search: Part 2

1 Readings

  • Peer review introduction

The spectrum of data types

    • 7 Videos
    • 6 Readings
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: Data types

7 Videos

  • Introduction
  • Some key concepts: Definitions
  • Data types
  • Arbitary classification: Nominal categorical data
  • Natural ordering of attributes: Ordinal categorical data
  • Measurements and numbers: Numerical data types
  • How to tell the difference: Discrete and continuous variables

6 Readings

  • Key notes: Definitions
  • Key notes: Data types
  • Key notes: Nominal categorical data
  • Key notes: Ordinal categorical data
  • Key notes: Numerical data types
  • Key notes: Discrete and continuous variables

Summarising data through simple descriptive statistics

    • 5 Videos
    • 4 Readings
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: Measures of central tendency and dispersion

5 Videos

  • Introduction
  • Measures of central tendency
  • Measures of dispersion
  • (Optional) Setting up spreadsheets to do your own analysis
  • (Optional) Descriptive statistics using spreadsheets

4 Readings

  • Key notes: Describing the data
  • Key notes: Measures of central tendency
  • Key notes: Measures of dispersion
  • Visual representation of data

Methods of obtaining sample subjects for research

    • 2 Videos
    • 2 Readings
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: Sampling

2 Videos

  • Making inferences: Sampling
  • Types of sampling

2 Readings

  • Key notes: Sampling
  • Key notes: Types of sampling

End of Section 2

    • 1 Videos
    • 1 Discussion
    • 1 Assignment
Show info about module content

1 Assignment

  • Week 2 Graded Quiz

1 Discussions

  • Share an example of clinical research

1 Videos

  • Case study 1

Honors: Identifying measures of central tendency and dispersion

    • 1 PeerReview
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1 Peer Review

  • Identify measures of central tendency and dispersion

From area to probability

    • 3 Videos
    • 3 Readings
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: Probability

3 Videos

  • P-values: P is for probability
  • Working out the probability: Rolling dice
  • Area under the curve: Continuous data types

3 Readings

  • Key notes: P-values
  • Key notes: Rolling dice
  • Key notes: Continuous data types

The heart of inferential statistics: Central limit theorem

    • 4 Videos
    • 4 Readings
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: The central limit theorem

4 Videos

  • Introduction to the central limit theorem: The heart of probability theory
  • Asymmetry and peakedness: Skewness and Kurtosis
  • Learning from the lotto: Combinations
  • Approximating a bell-shaped curve: The central limit theorem

4 Readings

  • Introduction to the central limit theorem
  • Key notes: Skewness and kurtosis
  • Key notes: Combinations
  • Key notes: Central limit theorem

Distributions: The shape of data

    • 7 Videos
    • 5 Readings
    • 2 Assignment
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2 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: Distributions
  • Week 3 Graded Quiz

7 Videos

  • Patterns in the data: Distributions
  • The bell-shaped curve: Normal distribution
  • Plotting a sample statistic: Sampling distribution
  • Standard normal distribution: Z distribution
  • Estimating population parameters: t-distribution
  • (Optional) Generating random data point values using spreadsheet software
  • Case study 2

5 Readings

  • Key notes: Distributions
  • Key notes: Normal distribution
  • Key notes: Sampling distribution
  • Key notes: Z-distribution
  • Key notes: The t-distibution

Reject or fail to reject? That is hypothesis testing.

    • 4 Videos
    • 3 Readings
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Testing your knowledge: Hypothesis

4 Videos

  • Introduction to Hypothesis Testing
  • Testing assumptions: Null and alternative hypothesis
  • Is there a difference?: Alternative Hypothesis
  • Type I and II: Hypothesis testing errors

3 Readings

  • Key notes: Null and alternative hypothesis
  • Key notes: Alternative hypothesis
  • Key notes: Hypothesis errors

Confidence in your results

    • 4 Videos
    • 3 Readings
    • 1 PeerReview
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: Confidence intervals

1 Peer Review

  • Week 4 Peer review

4 Videos

  • Introduction to confidence intervals
  • How confident are you?: Confidence levels
  • Interval estimation: Confidence intervals
  • (Optional) Calculating confidence intervals using spreadsheet software

3 Readings

  • Key notes: Introduction to confidence intervals
  • Key notes: Confidence levels
  • Key notes: Confidence intervals

Parametric testing for your normal data

    • 5 Videos
    • 4 Readings
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: Parametric tests

5 Videos

  • Introduction to parametric tests
  • Student's t-test
  • ANOVA
  • Linear Regression
  • (Optional) Student's t-test in action

4 Readings

  • Key notes: Parametric tests
  • Key notes: Student's t-test
  • Key notes: ANOVA
  • Key notes: Linear regression

Non-parametric testing for your non-normal data

    • 10 Videos
    • 2 Readings
    • 2 Assignment
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2 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: Non-parametric tests
  • Week 5 Graded Quiz

10 Videos

  • Introduction to nonparametric tests
  • Checking for normality
  • Thinking nonparametrically
  • Comparing paired observations: Signs
  • Ordering values: Ranking
  • Paired comparisons: Sign ranks
  • Summation of ranks: Rank sums
  • Comparing two populations: Mann-Whitney-U test
  • More nonparametric tests
  • Case study 3

2 Readings

  • Key notes: Nonparametric tests
  • Key notes: Nonparametric tests

Comparing categorical data

    • 5 Videos
    • 1 Readings
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Testing your knowledge: Comparing categorical data

5 Videos

  • Introduction to comparing categorical data
  • Observed frequencies: Contingency tables
  • Comparing observed and expected values: Chi-square test
  • Association between two variables: Fisher's exact test
  • (Optional) Calculating chi-square test using spreadsheet software

1 Readings

  • Key notes: Comparing categorical data

Sensitivity, specificity and predictive values

    • 3 Videos
    • 2 Readings
    • 2 Assignment
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2 Assignment

  • Test your knowledge: Sensitivity, specificity and predictive values
  • Week 6 Final examination

3 Videos

  • Introduction to sensitivity and specificity
  • Measuring performance: Sensitivity and specificity
  • Proportions of results: Positive and negative predictive values

2 Readings

  • Keynotes: Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values
  • Congratulations on completing the course

Relative risks

    • 5 Videos
    • 1 Readings
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Honors: Risk and odds ratios

5 Videos

  • Introdution to risk and odds ratios
  • Risk and odds ratios - Losses (Risk)
  • Risk and odds ratios - Losses (Odds)
  • Risk and odds ratios - Wins
  • Risk and odds ratios example

1 Readings

  • Risk and odds ratios

Auto Summary

"Understanding Clinical Research: Behind the Statistics" is a foundational course offered by Coursera, designed for clinical practitioners, medical students, and anyone interested in interpreting medical research. Led by expert instructors, this course simplifies statistical concepts like confidence intervals and p-values, making them accessible without heavy math. It’s free to enroll with options for certification and financial aid, and spans approximately 27 hours. Ideal for those looking to enhance their ability to understand and conduct clinical research.

Juan H Klopper
Instructor

Juan H Klopper