This course provides an overview of the general steps of clinical research, hypothesis types, protocol development, pilot study, ethical considerations in clinical research, data collection methods, bias & errors, and study design. Epidemiological study designs are explained with examples including the cross-sectional study, cohort study, case-control study, diagnostic test accuracy studies, and clinical trials.
Course syllabus
- General steps of research
- Searching the Literature
- Hypothesis testing
- Protocol writing
- Ethical considerations of clinical research
- Overview of Clinical Study Designs
- Case reports and case series (definition, examples, uses)
- Cross sectional studies (definition, examples, advantages, disadvantages)
- Cohort studies (definition, examples, advantages, disadvantages)
- Case-control studies (definition, examples, advantages, disadvantages)
- Diagnostic test accuracy studies (definition, examples)
- Clinical trials (definition, examples, advantages, disadvantages, types, blinding, randomization, allocation concealment, intention-to-treat analysis)
- Systematic reviews and Meta-analysis (definitions only)
- Data collection procedures in clinical research
- Bias and errors