Newcastle University

Aims

This is an online course which uses the statistical package MINITAB to help students on oncology and palliative medicine develop an understanding of elementary statistical methods such as estimation and hypothesis testing. Although no pre-requisites are needed it is designed to inculcate a somewhat deeper understanding than usual introductory courses and so is more appropriate for an M-level course. The module aims to:

1.       Inform students about some of the statistical techniques used in collecting data in oncology and palliative care.
2.       Develop a critical understanding of the statistical methods in analysing data.

Outline Of Syllabus

•       Statistics ; an overview
•       Descriptive statistics
•       Inferential statistics
•       Population and parameters
•       Normal distributions
•       Samples, estimation and standard errors
•       Confidence intervals
•       The idea of a hypothesis test
•       Tests to compare two groups I: the t-test
•       Tests to compare two groups II: binary data
•       Principle of sample size calculations
•       Survival analysis

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The design of the on-line material will not only focus on a range of inferential and descriptive statistics, but will also enhance the student's practical ability to apply statistical rigour to oncology/palliative care research.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The purpose of the exam is to consolidate the materials covered in the learning materials. The inclusion of a critique will assess how well candidates apply statistical principles to published work and therefore develop skills which will help students prepare for the dissertation