Unit information: Statistics & Research Methods in 2013/14

Unit name	Statistics & Research Methods
Unit code	MEDIM4003
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
Unit director	Professor. Tim Peters
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Bristol Medical School
Faculty	Faculty of Health Sciences

Description including Unit Aims

Unit Aims:

• To be able to search and appraise the literature.

• To describe processes for designing and implementing research studies

• To describe simple statistical analyses and how to perform these using software packages

• To describe the fundaments of data presentation

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module students will be able to:

• demonstrate the ability to design simple experiments to answer scientific or clinical problems

• analyse and present results in an appropriate manner

• critically evaluate published literature.

Teaching Information

• Lectures/workshops (12)

• Conferencing (5)

Assessment Information

• Data analysis exercises online (x4) 60%
• Written exam (1 x 3hrs) 40%

Reading and References

• Practical statistics for medical research. 2nd Edition (2000). DG Altman. Chapman & Hall /CRC Press

• An introduction to medical statistics. 3rd Edition (2000). Ed: M Bland. Oxford University Press

• Medical statistics: a common sense approach 3rd Edition (1999), MJ Campbell & D Machin

• Medical statistics made easy, M Harris & G Taylor (2000), Taylor and Francis and Abingdon

• Statistics with confidence, 2nd Ed 2000. Ed: D G Altman, D Machin, TH Bryant & MJ Gardner. BMJ Books London

• Essential Medical Statistics, 2nd Ed (2003). B R Kirkwood and J Sterne, Blackwell Science