Statistical Analyses for Evidence Based Medicine (Cancelled)

Course title

Statistical Analyses for Evidence Based Medicine.

Faculty

Arne Ring. Ph.D. medac GmbH and University of the Free State, Germany.

Arne Ring is head of the department Biometrics and Statistical Programming at medac (German pharmaceutical company), and Associate Professor of statistics at the University of the Free State (South Africa). Dr. Ring had previously worked at the Universities Oxford and Leicester, and held courses in clinical trials and evidence based medicine at numerous universities.

He publishes his methodological research in leading statistics journals, in particular on repeated measurements analyses, analyses of crossover trials, investigations of differential subgroup effects.

Furthermore he is actively involved in the CONSORT process as well as in the development of teaching statistics and evidence based medicine.

He had received the Biometrics student award of the German Society GMDS in 2003, and recently one of his students has received the DIA student award.

Course language

English.

Course schedule

July 18, 19 and 20, from 8:00am to 1:00pm.

Description

This short-course is designed for students in statistics/mathematics as well as for medical students who are interested in reading and evaluating medical research papers with high efficiency.

Furthermore the course will help appraising own manuscripts before they are submitted, which increases the chance of getting the manuscript accepted.

The students will evaluate various types of quantitative research, including clinical trials, observational studies and meta-analysis, and discuss statistical issues in evidence based medicine which they have in common.

Program (3 days with 5 hours each)

Day 1: Appraisal of medical research

Evidence levels of medical investigations.

The PICO system – how to get key information to judge the science.

Clinical trials vs. epidemiological research.

Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses.

Before the headlines – judging press releases of medical research.

Group study: Appraising a medical research paper according to PICO – it would be great if this could be done in the afternoon on their own.

Day 2: Trial design

Presentations of the Day 1 Group studies.

Appraising the clinical trial design.

Addressing primary vs. secondary objectives.

How to prepare for unexpected findings in the design?.

Group study: Evaluating the methodology of a medical research paper– it would be great if this could be done in the afternoon on their own.

Day 3: Advance topics in trials and meta-analysis

Presentations of the Day 2 Group studies.

How to address unexpected findings during the analysis?.

Assessing heterogeneity of outcomes across trials or subgroups.

Interpreting heterogeneity for the implementation of new health concepts.

Target audience

Participants should be briefly familiar with clinical research methods and general statistical terminology (e.g. confidence intervals and tests), or want to get a deeper understanding. 

For the advanced statistical topics, some experience in mixed modelling or logistic regression is of advantage, but concepts will also be understood without statistical background.

The course presentation is mostly practical with many worked examples.

Evaluation

The group presentations will be graded, and a written test will be performed at the end of the course.

Classroom

PC2