Research in Biomedical Sciences

COURSE OBJECTIVE
After the course, students will be able to: discuss the (dis)advantages of different research designs; explain the relationship between sample, population and model; use excel to manage research data and conduct basic statistical analyses; explain what a confidence interval is; explain how a statistical test works; select the appropriate analysis technique given a basic research design.

COURSE CONTENT
In this course the emphasis is on how biomedical knowledge is systematically acquired. This includes what types of (epidemiological)
research there are and their advantages and disadvantages. What types of information does this research yield and how can this information be used to make decisions about research hypotheses. There is ample attention for the development of conceptual understanding of inferential statistics. This understanding of inferential statistics will be applied with several different basic techniques to the practice of biomedical scientists. There is extensive attention to the interpretation of the results, and the weight that the use of statistical results have in scientific practice.

TEACHING METHODS
Lectures - on average 2 hours a week; Seminars- on average 2 hours a week; Computer practical classes - on average 3 hours a week; Research seminars for the research project: 2 times during the course.

TYPE OF ASSESSMENT
There are two (closed book) partial exams that taken together form 75% of the grade. If the combined average of the exams is insufficient, then there is one resit exam worth 75% covering the material of both partial exams. The research project consists of a research report (25%).

RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
Introduction to Biomedical Sciences