One-day course in Introductory Statistics for Medical Research

Summary

What?  A one-day course in Introductory Statistics for Medical Research, given by Dr. Jim Stack PhD, who has three decades of experience of statistical teaching and consultancy.  Course participants will be introduced to basic statistical methods and ideas via the easy-to-use statistical package Minitab 16.  Medical data sets will be used throughout the day, to illustrate the methods covered and as practice exercises for each method. A Course Outline is appended to this email.

When?   Friday 22nd July 2011 9.30am - 1pm and 2pm - 5pm

Where?   ArcLabs Research and Innovation Centre, West Campus WIT, Carriganore, Waterford

Who should attend? Medical researchers doing (or planning) quantitative research, who feel the need for a statistical refresher course.

Cost: The fee is €250 per attendee. This fee covers lunch and light refreshments as well as the cost of tuition. However, attendees should bring their own laptops, including power cables, with Minitab 16 and Microsoft Word and Excel installed. A free trial copy (which lasts one month) of the Statistics package Minitab 16 should be downloaded from www.minitab.com  prior to attending this course.
Extra laptops (with software installed) will be provided on the day for attendees unable to comply with these requirements, provided a week’s prior notice is given to the course provider. However, in each such case, the cost of hiring the extra machine will be added to the course fee.

Booking your place: To book a place on the one-day course, please email jstack[at]nutrasightconsultancy.com, or post to Dr. Jim Stack, Room 1.10, ArcLabs Research and Innovation Centre, West Campus WIT, Carriganore, Waterford. Once your booking has been confirmed, payment (by credit card, cheque or postal order) will be requested.

Directions to Carriganore (which has its own roundabout entrance on the Waterford Outer Ring Road) will be provided with the booking confirmation.

Other dates available: It is planned to run these one-day courses at intervals of about two months, with small numbers attending on each occasion. If the July date does not suit, or if you book a place on the July course but are unable to attend on the day, further one-day courses are planned for September and November 2011. Please inform Dr. Stack by email or post if particular days of the week (Tuesday-Saturday) are especially suitable, and he will try to arrange future courses on these preferred days. However, be advised that Monday courses are not an option because of other programmes which run at Carriganore on Mondays.

Other sites: The introductory one-day course may be provided at other sites, but higher fees would apply. As an illustration: with five attendees, the fee for providing the course on-site at a Dublin hospital (with seminar room provided by hospital free of charge and attendees meeting their own catering costs) would be €300 per attendee.

Other courses: A one-day introductory course cannot cover all commonly-used medical statistics techniques. In particular, longitudinal analysis (repeated measures taken on subjects over time), sample size/power calculations, and non-parametric methods, will not be covered in the introductory course. Courses in these (or other) methods may be provided on request.

Other forms of statistical support: A one-day introductory course will not meet everyone’s statistical needs. We intend to provide a service also for individuals or small groups requiring assistance tailored to their specific project requirements. General information on this service will be provided in a separate email, to be issued in the next week or two.

Course Outline

Introductory Session (15 minutes): Collecting data. Sampling. Storing data. Types of data. Dependent variables.

Minitab Session 1 (60 minutes): One quantitative variable (mean, standard deviation, percentiles, histogram, boxplot). One qualitative variable (counts, proportions, bar charts). Descriptive and inferential statistics.

Coffee break (15 minutes)

Minitab Session 2A (45 minutes): Analysis of two variables. Both qualitative: crosstabs, clustered bar chart, chi-square test. Dependent variable quantitative: 2-sample t-test, ANOVA, boxplots.

Minitab Session 2B (45 minutes): Two quantitative variables. Correlation. Regression. Scatterplots.

Lunch break (60 minutes)

Minitab Session 3 (75 minutes): Three or more variables. Multiple linear regression. F and t tests.  Indicator variables.  Interaction.

Coffee break (15 minutes)

Minitab Session 4 (60 minutes): Binary logistic regression. Odds ratios.

Contact

Sarah O’Regan
Nutrasight Consultancy Ltd.
ArcLabs Research & Innovation Centre
Waterford Institute of Technology
West Campus, Carriganore, Waterford