Course overview
Students will examine the principles of conducting clinical trials with humans in the health and medical sciences. Features of 'gold standard' randomised controlled trials will be showcased, referencing the CONSORT Statement. Students will learn practical skills in designing and analysing clinical trials, including constructing research hypotheses, utilising methods to reduce the risk of biased findings, understanding the principles of statistical inference, confidence interval estimation, sample size estimation, and differences in applying statistical approaches to the clinical trials setting.
Course learning outcomes
- Understand the role and application of randomised controlled trials in health and medical research
- Apply common clinical trial design features appropriately when addressing research questions
- Apply a range of simple and complex statistical analysis techniques commonly used in clinical trials, including intention to treat, per protocol and as treated approaches
- Demonstrate statistical reasoning skills correctly with unadjusted and adjusted parallel group analyses
- Appraise the strengths and limitations of published literature on clinical trials, with reference to the CONSORT statement and risk of bias tools
- Use statistical software proficiently to conduct unadjusted and adjusted parallel group analyses and interpret relevant output correctly and contextually
Degree list
The following degrees include this course