Minor Medical research to clinical practice

Course Objective

1. Students know which steps to follow to set-up and perform a medical research;
2. Students can analyze and interpret their own research data;
3. Students can present the findings of their research in an appropriate manner;
4. Students know how research is being performed at a medical department of an (academic) hospital;
   

Course Content

Nowadays, working as a physician means that you need to understand medical research, as this is the key to good clinical practice. But not only having the knowledge, but also being able to apply medical research is important. Therefore, the minor Medical Research into Clinical Practice has been developed. In this minor students learn how to set-up medical research, how to analyze the retrieved data as a tool to answer the research question of interest, and learn what the implications of medical research are for clinical practice.

This minor is a combination of theory and practice as the student will be placed at a medical department in the Amsterdam UMC to perform a medical research project on his/her own. For the students of the Faculty of Medicine, the bachelorthesis (which is not an offical part of the minor) consists of the paper that will be written based on their own research, which they have performed during the four months of this minor.

The minor can be divided in three major divisions: the set-up, the analysis and the interpretation.

Once every two weeks, the student will have a meeting with their supervisor from the department of Epidemiology and Data Science, in small groups during the Monday Morning Meetings, there are five question hours organized in which the students can ask help with their research project from prof. dr. Jos Twisk and dr. Martijn Heymans.

General

Besides the teaching and practical hours, (all scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays), the student will be working on their own research for 2 days at the medical department during the whole period of 4 months. During this period, the student works on a real dataset and answers a clinically, relevant research question.

The set-up: Setting up research (Month 1)

In the first weeks of the minor Medical Research into Clinical Practice, the student will learn more about how to set-up different types of studies and about the pitfalls accompanying the different type of studies. Besides that, the students will also learn how to perform systematic reviews, how to assess the quality of measurement instruments, and how to perform cost-effectiveness studies. Finally, the students will learn how to write a research proposal. This part is examined with a research proposal and a theoretical exam.

The analysis: Analyzing data to retrieve an answer to the research question (Month 2 and 3).
Statistical analyzes are a tool that is needed to retrieve an answer to the research question that is being studied. Therefore, we pay a lot of attention on how to analyze data. We start off with a recap of linear, logistic and Cox regression analyses.Furthermore, the students will learn how to deal with missing data, how to build and validate prediction models, how to perform mediation analyses.how to analyze correlated data (e.g. multicenter data), how to analyze longitudinal data and how to analyze data from RCTs, and how to perform cost-effectiveness studies. This part will be examined with a practical exam and a theoretical exam.

The interpretation: Interpretation of the findings and implications for clinical practice (Month 4).

In the last month of this minor, the focus is on the presentation and communication of research findings. The students will learn how to deal with the press, how to write a lay summary, how to communicate research findings to patients and how to convert the results of medical research into a poster and presentation.

This part is examined by a portfolio and a poster presentation where the students present the results of their own research.

Additional Information Teaching Methods

Method of Assessment

Two theoretical exams, 1 practical exam, a research proposal a portfolio and a poster presentation. All practical and theoretical exams are open book exams and with open ended questions.

Literature

Books:

• A Quick Guide on How to Conduct Medical Research. From Set-up to Publication. ISBN: 9789036822473
  
• Applied Mixed model Analyses. ISBN: 9781108727761
  
• Applied Longitudinal Data Analyses for Epidemiology. ISBN: 9781107699922

Additional Information Target Audience

Bachelor’s students Faculty of Medicine and external (and international) students with a (bio)medical background.

Recommended background knowledge

Knowledge on descriptive statistics and regression analyses (linear, logistic, Cox) and SPSS is recommended (MWO1 and MWO2 – Bachelor courses B1 and B2)