The Blue Book
Statistics Teaching for Medical and Dental students in the UK
Institution: Newcastle University
Overview: Aside from sessions on Critical Appraisal for medical undergraduates, statistics teaching
is directed primarily at postgraduates.
Public Health and Health Services Research MSc; PGDip; PGCert: The programme is for those
who wish to pursue a career in the NHS (or its equivalent in another country), academic health care,
voluntary organisations or local authorities involved in health improvement. The module “Health
Statistics” explains the relevance of statistical ideas and techniques to health science; introduces the
requirements, advantages and disadvantages of the techniques covered in the module; enables
students to interpret the results of statistical analyses reported in the literature; and allows them to
carry out and interpret simple statistical analyses using appropriate software. The main areas
covered are descriptive statistics; probability concepts; hypothesis testing and confidence interval
estimation; and interpreting and appraising the statistical content of research papers. The concepts
are reinforced by computer practicals using MINITAB. The modules “Introduction to Quantitative
Methods” and “Further Quantitative Methods” cover topics such as measures of frequency, specific
and standardised rates, and sampling strategies.
Medical Sciences MRes: This programme is designed for graduates in the life sciences, other
science disciplines and for intercalating and fully qualified medical or dental students. The new
module “Research Skills and Principles for the Biosciences” aims to provide a guide to the use of
basic statistics, together with the design of experiments and bioethics. Topics covered include simple
descriptive measures, hypothesis tests for continuous data; confidence intervals; sample size
methods; regression; correlation; assessment of interactions, adjusting confounding variables;
analysis of skewed data; blocking; randomisation; and factorial designs. MINITAB is used for
practicals.
Clinical Research MClinRes; PGDip; PGCert: This programme provides professionals within the
NHS (and international equivalents), ancillary services and industry with a comprehensive
understanding of the processes involved in clinical research. The PGCert module “Research Study
Design and Data Interpretation” aims to familiarise students with potential designs of studies for
clinical research. This includes developing familiarity and confidence with different methods of data
handling; developing skills of interpreting data, preparing for presentation and presenting itself; and
facilitating effective reading and critical appraisal of published literature. Teaching is via a mixture of
lectures and tutorials/workshops; it is also available as an E-learning module. The PGDip module
“Clinical Research Statistics” is an online course which helps students performing clinical research
develop an understanding of elementary statistical methods such as estimation and hypothesis
testing. For this module, students can use either SPSS or MINITAB.
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Oncology and Palliative Care MSc; PGDip and Cancer Studies PGCert: The online module
“Research Methods II Statistics” uses MINITAB to help students on oncology and palliative medicine
develop an understanding of elementary statistical methods such as estimation and hypothesis
testing. The content is the same as for the “Clinical Research Statistics” module, except that it
focuses solely on MINITAB.
Type of undergraduate students:
Medical
Dental
Mathematics
Other
MPhil
PhD:
MClinRes
Biology
(please state:
MRes
)
PGDip
PGCert
MSc
Estimated total number of students: up to 100-150; per group when separated: 10-20.
Academic years where medical statistics is taught: Primarily postgraduate.
No. estimated hours per academic year (excluding students’ independent study): Health
Statistics – 50; Research Skills and Principles for the Biosciences – 40; Research Study
Design and Data Interpretation – 17; Clinical Research Statistics – 60; Research Methods II
Statistics – 40.
Note: Not all of the subjects below are covered in each of the modules.
Subject
Concept Calculations/equations* Descriptions/comments
Types of variable
Distributions
Summary Statistics
Concepts of population and
sample
Confidence intervals
Hypothesis testing, p-values
Comparing two means
2
Comparing two proportions
Linear regression
Logistic regression
Graphs
Survival analysis
Multivariate analysis
Critical appraisal
Other (please state)
Other (please state)
Other (please state)
*If applicable.
Assessment details:
The Public Health MSc module on Health Statistics is assessed by a written examination and the
written report of a project.
The MRes module is assessed by a multiple choice questionnaire (MCQ) linked to the practical
sessions.
The Oncology module is assessed by a written exercise and a MCQ.
The Clinical Research modules are assessed via an essay and a MCQ, together with a written exercise
on study design and an oral presentation for the “Research Study Design and Data Interpretation”
module.
Computer package used:
Stata
SPSS
StatsDirect
NCSS
Matlab
Other
S-plus
, please state which : Minitab
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R
Recommended literature:
1)
2)
3)
An Introduction to Medical Statistics – Martin Bland
Essential Medical Statistics – BR Kirkwood & JAC Sterne.
Medical Statistics: A Textbook for the Health Sciences – MJ Campbell, D Machin &
SJ Walters.
Contact - administration
Name :
Position :
Email :
Address :
Telephone No. :
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Contact - tutors
Name
Department
Email
Address
Telephone
Number
Denise Howel
Institute of Health &
Society / School of
Mathematics and
Statistics
School of
Mathematics and
Statistics
Denise.Howel@Newcastle.ac.uk
Institute of Health & Society,
Newcastle University, BaddileyClark Building, Richardson Road,
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4AX
0191 222 7381
John.Matthews@Newcastle.ac.uk
School of Mathematics and
Statistics, Herschel Building,
Newcastle University, Newcastle
upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
0191 222 7259
Industrial Statistics
Research Unit (ISRU),
School of
Mathematics and
Statistics
ISRU, School of
Mathematics and
Statistics
David.McGeeney@Newcastle.ac.uk
ISRU, School of Mathematics and
Statistics, Herschel Building,
Newcastle University, Newcastle
upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
0191 222 8701
Matthew.Linsley@newcastle.ac.uk
ISRU, School of Mathematics and
Statistics, Herschel Building,
Newcastle University, Newcastle
upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
0191 222 5750
(Public Health MSc
module – Health
Statistics)
Professor John Matthews
(MRes module - Research
Skills and Principles for
the Biosciences; Oncology
MSc module - Research
Methods II Statistics)
David McGeeney
(MClinRes module Clinical Research
Statistics)
Matthew Linsley
(Statistics component of
MClinRes module Research Study Design
and Data Interpretation)
Other comments: List complied in May 2013.
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