Crash Course Medical Research, Audit and Teaching: the Essentials for Career Success, 2nd Edition

Section 1 The essentials for career success 1    An introduction to research, audit and teaching  Book purpose Research methodology Audit and its loop Teaching theory and practice The essentials for career success Further reading 2    Evidence-based medicine What is evidence-based medicine? Formulating clinical questions Identifying relevant evidence The search strategy Search terms Reviewing the search strategy Critically appraising the evidence Evaluating performance Creating guideline recommendations Further reading 3    How to get involved Opportunities for research Types of projects Identifying the gap in the evidence Finding a research supervisor/research group Project funding Advice for someone considering a career in academic medicine Further reading 4    Presenting your research findings Submitting an abstract for presentation Selecting the right conference Writing an abstract Poster presentations Oral presentations Answering audience questions Further reading 5    Publishing your findings Writing up a research study manuscript Submitting a manuscript for publication Dealing with a rejected manuscript Further reading 6    Writing a successful curriculum vitae Is a curriculum vitae necessary? What is a curriculum vitae? Writing an effective curriculum vitae Style and formatting Common mistakes Further reading Section 2 Research methodology  7    Handling data   Types of variables Types of data Displaying the distribution of a single variable Displaying the distribution of two variables Describing the frequency distribution: central tendency Describing the frequency distribution: variability Theoretical distributions Transformations Choosing the correct summary measure Further reading 8    Investigating hypotheses Hypothesis testing Choosing a sample Extrapolating from sample to population Comparing means and proportions: confidence intervals The P-value Statistical significance and clinical significance Statistical power References Further reading 9    Systematic review and meta-analysis Why do we need systematic reviews? Evidence synthesis Meta-analysis Presenting meta-analyses Evaluating meta-analyses Key example of a meta-analysis Reporting a systematic review References Further reading 10  Research design  Obtaining data Interventional studies Observational studies Clinical trials Bradford-Hill criteria for causation Choosing the right study design Further reading 11  Randomized controlled trials Why choose an interventional study design? Parallel randomized controlled trial Confounding, causality and bias Interpreting the results Types of randomized controlled trials Key example of a randomized controlled trial Reporting a randomized controlled trial References Further reading 12  Cohort studies Study design Interpreting the results Confounding, causality and bias Advantages and disadvantages Key example of a cohort study References Further reading 13  Case–control studies  Study design Interpreting the results Case study: risk of constrictive pericarditis after acute pericarditis Confounding, causality and bias Key example of a case–control study References Further reading 14  Measures of disease occurrence and cross-sectional studies  Measures of disease occurrence Study design Interpreting the results Confounding, causality and bias Key example of a cross-sectional study References Further reading 15  Ecological studies Study design Interpreting the results Sources of error in ecological studies Key example of an ecological study References Further reading 16  Case report and case series  Background Conducting a case report Conducting a case series Critical appraisal of a case series Key examples of case reports Key example of a case series References Further reading 17  Qualitative research  Study design Organizing and analysing the data Validity, reliability and transferability Advantages and disadvantages Key example of qualitative research References Further reading 18  Confounding  What is confounding? Assessing for potential confounding factors Controlling for confounding factors Reporting and interpreting the results Key example of study confounding References Further reading 19  Screening, diagnosis and prognosis Screening, diagnosis and prognosis Screening tests Example of a screening test using likelihood ratios Diagnostic tests Evaluating the performance of a diagnostic test The diagnostic process Example of a diagnostic test using predictive values Bias in diagnostic studies Prognostic tests References Further reading 20  Statistical techniques Choosing appropriate statistical tests Comparison of one group to a hypothetical value Comparison of two groups Comparison of three or more groups Measures of association Further reading 21  Economic evaluation   What is health economics? Economic question and study design Cost-minimization analysis Cost-utility analysis Cost-effectiveness analysis Cost–benefit analysis Sensitivity analysis Further reading 22  Critical appraisal checklists Critical appraisal Critical appraisal checklist: systematic reviews and meta-analyses Critical appraisal checklist: randomized controlled trials Critical appraisal checklist: diagnostic studies Critical appraisal checklist: qualitative studies Further reading 23  Crash course in statistical formulae  Describing the frequency distribution Extrapolating from ‘sample’ to ‘population’ Study analysis Test performance Economic evaluation Further reading Section 3 Audit and its loop: the modern approach to improving healthcare practice 24  Clinical audit  An introduction to clinical audit Planning the audit Choosing the standards Audit protocol Defining the sample Data collection Analysing the data Evaluating the findings Implementing change Example of a clinical audit Further reading 25  Quality improvement Quality improvement versus audit The model for quality improvement The aim statement Measures for improvement Developing the changes The plan-do-study-act  cycle Repeating the cycle Example of a quality improvement project Further reading Section 4 Teaching Theory and Practice   26  Medical education Introduction Learning perspectives/theories Optimizing learning Further reading 27  Designing a teaching session and teaching programme   Effective teaching