MEDICAL STATISTICS
cod. 21945

Academic year 2014/15
2° year of course - First semester
Professor
Academic discipline
Informatica (INF/01)
Field
Inglese scientifico e abilità linguistiche, informatiche e relazionali, pedagogia medica, tecnologie avanzate e a distanza di informazione e comunicazione
Type of training activity
Characterising
7 hours
of face-to-face activities
1 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in - - -

Integrated course unit module: LINGUISTICS SKILLS AND COMPUTER SKILLS II

Learning objectives

The main aim of the course is to deepen the course of the first year, looking in particular at the use of multivariate models in medicine, widely used and reported in the scientific literature. Students will acquire the capacity to comprehend peer-reviewed literature with complex models or epidemiological studies, and they might used the instruments given by this course in clinical studies with multiple variables. Several examples from clinical practice will be presented, and the freeware statistical software OPENSTAT will be used for practical exercises.

Prerequisites

I year module passed, basic knowledge of English

Course unit content

The course should integrate the course of the first year, giving to the students several elements of multivariate statistics and clinical epidemiology.
Specifically, after the reprise of some basic statistical concepts (type of studies in medicine, variable types, database creation, etc), the course will give instruments of inferential statistics directly applicable to clinical research, as ANOVA (one or two-way analysis of variance), ANCOVA, models of multiple regression, models of logistic regression, survival studies and ROC curves. Theory will be integrated with examples from clinical practice, so that the applicability of the proposed models will be clear.

Full programme

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Bibliography

SA Glantz - Statistica per discipline biomediche; A Morabia: l'epidemiologia clinica

Teaching methods

During the classroom lectures the topics of the module program will be
illustrated and commented. Each theory argument with mathematical
formulae will be explained with the use of simple and practice examples,
so that the student can focus his/her attention on basic concepts more
than the formulae themselves. Furthermore, the use of the software
OPENSTAT will permit to the student to repeat the statistical tests treated
during classes for a better comprehension of their use and meaning.
Several technical terms will be used both in Italian and in English, so that
the
student can read on his own the international scientific literature.

Assessment methods and criteria

The verification of the achievement of module objectives is a written or
oral test, mainly consisting of open questions about the arguments
treated during the lessons. In this way, it is possible to assess the
student’s knowledge and understanding of both theory and practice
principles and their application in medical and biological field through the
use of current examples.

Other information

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