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Research Techniques for Clinicians
45 hours of CE credit / Course Fee $550
Presented by Richard A. Sherman, Ph.D.
(360 452-5020) rsherman@nwinet.com
Learning Objectives: Welcome to research techniques for clinicians. This course is intended to acquaint you with the basic elements of how read the scientific literature intelligently and how a clinical research project is conducted from initiating the idea through presenting the results. The scientific method and its application to psychophysiological research and practice is emphasized.
You will practice each element of designing a study through a series of short essay review assignments, by critiquing several articles, and by writing a research protocol. These tasks require you to use web based resources such as pubmed or other professional library resources to look up materials. Each review assignment matches the material covered in one section of the course text which is entitled "Clinical Research". The review assignments are in the book. The final assignment is production of a practice protocol which includes all of the elements you have practiced and demonstrates your mastery of them.
Please feel free to contact me at rsherman@nwinet.com or at (360) 452-5020 for questions, to make an appointment, general discussion, etc. If you have trouble with the course don’t wait until it is too late to get help.
Required Text:
Sherman, R. Clinical Research. This book can be purchased in CD format for $80 from the Behavioral Medicine Research and Training Foundation on this Web site.
Required Statistical Software: You need to have access to any modern, PC based biostatistics program such as SPSS. Student versions of various appropriate software packages are under several hundred dollars. If you don’t have access to a program, I strongly recommend SPSSPC. One of our graduate students just looked into the purchase and found the following: “You can purchase the software at journeyed.com. The graduate pack is $199.99. You can get the student version for $85.00, but it expires in one year and only compares 50 variables. The grad pack expires in 4 years and has unlimited variable capacity.”
Required Use of the Web:You will need to be able to use the National Library of Medicine’s pubmed service. They keep changing the web site location so you may need to perform a google search for pubmed or medline. Do not use medline plus or pubmed plus as these are for the public and don’t provide the details you need. This free service provides abstracts and, very occasionally the full text of an article. Usually, you will need to work with a local library to send for the full text of articles you are interested in. This can take two to three weeks and is not free.
Assignment requirements: You will (a) critique two research articles in your area of interest, (b) develop a practice research protocol on a topic of your choice, and (c) complete five written assignments corresponding to each of the sections of the book.
You can expect to write two versions of each assignment as I will return assignments with any problems for correction. When you e-mail me a revision of a draft I critiqued, enter your revised answers on the file I sent you containing my critique so I can look at my comments and your response simultaneously.
(a) Study Critiques: You are to critique the strengths and weaknesses of each section of two research study based articles from your main area of interest (e.g. child psychology). You are to select both articles by doing a search of the National Library of Medicine’s web based library. Select articles which are based on studies of any design as long as data were actually gathered and reported. E-mail the abstracts of both studies to me (cut and paste) by the end of the second week of the course. After I approve the selection, you can send for the full length article. After you have completed reading the text, you are to critique each article separately using the following two different methods: (1) The algorithm in Section I and (2) The nine step process presented to you during the first or second lecture.
You will not be able to appropriately critique the articles until you have read the entire text. The critiques are due via-email on the last day of class.
(b) Protocol: A research protocol is a detailed proposal describing a study you want to perform. You are to develop a research protocol on a topic of your choice following the format in section “G” of the text "clinical research" and using the sample protocols in section “H” of the text as a guide to length, style, and complexity. All elements of the protocol must be included (hypothesis, objectives, background, methods, subject inclusion/exclusion criteria, proposed data analysis techniques, consent form, etc.). Insure that you have an sufficiently detailed background section which provides a good picture of the state of the literature on the question you are reviewing as well as on the methods you will use to evaluate your subjects. You must propose adequate statistical methods for evaluating the data you plan to collect.
The protocol is likely to be five or more pages in length.
c) Text based assignments: Each assignment should be done shortly after you finish the lectures associated with the corresponding section of the book. Note that there are no single word answers in any of the assignments. Each assignment will take you between two and five single spaced pages to answer adequately.
Topics we will cover:
Introduction 5
1. Rationale - the crucial need to understand and use clinical research 5
2. The scientific method 11
Section A. The need to know what you are doing 13
Chapter 1. The basic steps and time-line of a project 13
Chapter 2. Defensive reading of clinical literature - does the hypothesis make sense? 21
Chapter 3. Protocol development - formulating and maturing a question 24
Chapter 4. Background and literature searches 36
Chapter 5. Determining feasibility 38
Chapter 6. Research ethics 40
Chapter 7. The research protocol approval process 67
Chapter 8. Pitfalls in the first steps 72
Section B. Basic study structures for the office and clinic environment 76
Chapter 9. The logic and progression of designs 76
Chapter 10. Exploratory single subject and single group designs 85
Chapter 11. Observational studies - longitudinal & cross-sectional designs 89
Chapter 12. Prospective experimental study designs 91
Chapter 13. Outcome and quality of life studies 97
Chapter 14. The protocol's research plan and design 101
Chapter 15. Defensive reading of clinical literature - does the design fit the needs? 103
Chapter 16. Pitfalls in study design 105
Section C. Establishing the credibility of data and clinical publications 110
Chapter 17. Subject selection techniques - sampling, inclusion - exclusion 110
Chapter 18. Hardening subjective data 116
Chapter 19. Validity and reliability - defensive data entry 125
Chapter 20. Survey, test, and questionnaire design 134
Chapter 21. Defensive reading of clinical literature - can you trust the subjects and data? 147
Chapter 22. Pitfalls in data gathering methodology 150
Section D. Statistics for evaluating literature & interpreting clinical data 154
Chapter 23. Concepts of clinical data analysis 154
Chapter 24. Descriptive statistics for evaluating clinical data 159
Chapter 25. Probability and significance testing 168
Chapter 26. Decision / Risk analysis 171
Chapter 27. Power analysis - determining the optimal number of subjects 176
Chapter 28. Evaluation of overlap between groups through inferential statistics 183
Chapter 29. Evaluation of relationships between changing variables 191
Chapter 30. Dichotomous and proportional data 201
Chapter 31. Outliers - data points that don't meet expectations 206
Chapter 32. Pattern analysis 208
Chapter 33. Survival / life table analysis 211
Chapter 34. Defensive reading of clinical literature: Handling the data 214
Chapter 35. Pitfalls in study analysis 219
Section E. Synthesizing the elements to produce an effective study 224
Chapter 36. The protocol - incorporating statistics 224
Chapter 37. The grant - extramural funding process 227
Chapter 38. Writing and presenting the study 233
Chapter 39. The publication submission and review process 239
Chapter 40. Changing clinical practice based on what you did and read 245
Chapter 41. Defensive reading of clinical literature - does the conclusion match the raw data, the data analysis, the hypothesis, and the background? 247
Chapter 42. Pitfalls in the overall research process 251
Schedule: You can begin the course any time you want to and proceed at your own speed. Just contact us at rsherman@nwinet.com or (360) 452-5020 to get started.
CE Credit: This is a continuing education, not an accredited course. CE credits are given through the state of California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences (Approval # PCE1895).
BCIA credit: This course can be used toward recertification in both general biofeedback and neurofeedback.
Cost: $550 in US dollars payable by check to the Foundation or by credit card (Master Card, Visa, or Discover). This price does not include the cost of recommended texts.
Refund and cancellation policies: Full refund until the CDs are mailed to you. After the CDs are mailed, there is no refund at all as the Foundation has committed its resources to you. A course would only be cancelled due to an extreme emergency on the part of the course instructor or the Foundation. In the highly unlikely event a course is cancelled, you would receive a full refund.
Faculty: The course is directed and coordinated by Dr. Richard Sherman.
Richard A. Sherman, PhD is certified by BCIA, approved by BCIA to teach the general biofeedback certification course, and currently teaches A&P for the Behavioral Medicine R& T Foundation. He is a professional psychophysiologist with extensive training (his PhD is in biology / physiology) and has nearly 30 years of experience in the field.
Ordering Information:
If you wish to pay by check please send it, payable in U.S. funds, to:
Behavioral Medicine Research and Training Foundation
6576 Blue Mountain Road
Port Angeles, WA 98362
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