A practical guide to statistics for general practice

EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE is a well-established part of general practice in Australia.1 Understanding research is embedded within the current curriculum of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), with the ability to discuss 'scientific and statistical information' for clinical decisions listed as a required skillset for general practitioners (GPs).2 In the past few years, the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted that interpreting epidemiology and statistics is not only relevant for GP academics, but is also an integral part of clinical care.3 For example, GPs are often the first point of contact for patients asking about the evidence for masks, diagnostic accuracy of COVID-19 tests, vaccine efficacy and effectiveness of new antiviral treatments. In clinical practice, framing a research question, conducting a database search and critical appraisal of the selected paper are key first steps in interpreting and using research evidence.

May a Distance Learning Course in Statistics Satisfy Medical Students? The Experience with an Italian University Sample During the Covid Pandemic

Teaching medical statistics online poses several difficulties related both to the subject and the use of technology. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a traditional medical statistics course was forced to be held online. The study investigates the impact of such a transformation in terms of both the student satisfaction and the stress at the end of the course, by taking into account the attitudes toward statistics before and after the academic course. The results show that the students' learning satisfaction was on average 30.1 (5.8). Analyzing the singles items: over 70% of students were satisfied of the technology used, even if only about 18% would participate in a new online course. Students were stressed and half of them reported high levels of stress. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Analysis of COVID-19-related clinical trials registered in the Clinical Trial Registry of India in 2020: A descriptive study

From the etiology, the clinical manifestations to various diagnostic and treatment modalities as also the socioeconomic impact, clinical trials play a pivotal role in understanding every step of the disease process. [...]it is important that studies pertaining to various aspects of diseases must be evaluated meticulously and regularly. Procedure The data were collected from the CTRI website operated by the National Institute of Medical Statistics, Indian Council of Medical Research which is available in the public domain. (Various trials on drugs consisted of drug repurposing models, which included, antimalarial drugs - hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine;ART drugs - lopinavir and ritonavir;antiviral drugs - favipiravir and remdesivir;antiparasitic drugs - ivermectin;antibiotics - azithromycin;steroids - dexamethasone and methylprednisolone;minerals - zinc;and vitamins - Vitamin C and Vitamin D;biologics - tocilizumab, cytokine cocktail, convalescent plasma, itolizumab, and interferons;and vaccines - BCG vaccines and live or attenuated vaccines of SARS-CoV-2).

Learning from errors? The impact of erroneous example elaboration on learning outcomes of medical statistics in Chinese medical students.

BACKGROUND: Constructivism theory has suggested that constructing students' own meaning is essential to successful learning. The erroneous example can easily trigger learners' confusion and metacognition, which may "force" students to process the learning material and construct meaning deeply. However, some learners exhibit a low level of elaboration activity and spend little time on each example. Providing instructional scaffolding and elaboration training may be an efficient method for addressing this issue. The current study conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine the effectiveness of erroneous example elaboration training on learning outcomes and the mediating effects of metacognitive load for Chinese students in medical statistics during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Ninety-one third-year undergraduate medical students were randomly assigned to the training group (n = 47) and the control group (n = 44). Prerequisite course performance and learning motivation were collected as covariates. The mid-term exam and final exam were viewed as posttest and delayed-test to make sure the robustness of the training effect. The metacognitive load was measured as a mediating variable to explain the relationship between the training and academic performance. RESULTS: The training significantly improved both posttest and delayed-test performance compared with no training (Fposttest = 26.65, p < 0.001, Partial η2 = 0.23; Fdelayed test = 38.03, p < 0.001, Partial η2 = 0.30). The variation trend in metacognitive load in the two groups was significantly different (F = 2.24, p < 0.05, partial η2 = 0.20), but metacognitive load could not explain the positive association between the treatment and academic performance (ß = - 0.06, se = 0.24, 95% CI - 0.57 to 0.43). CONCLUSIONS: Erroneous example learning and metacognitive demonstrations are effective for academic performance in the domain of medical statistics, but their underlying mechanism merits further study.

[The transformation of medical statistic during pandemic of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19)].

The pandemic of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) directly effected medical statistics service. The amendments to the Federal Law "On the Official Statistical Accounting and the System of State Statistics in the Russian Federation" adopted in December 2020, regulated the provision of primary statistical data according forms of Federal and industrial statistical observation in the format of electronic document signed with electronic signature. This required the development of system of collecting and processing statistical data at the Federal level applying new technological solutions. The purpose of the study. To analyze the changes in the system of collecting and processing annual reporting on medical statistics for 2020 during the pandemic of new coronavirus infection COVID-19. The analysis was made concerning both normative legal base regulating implementation of information systems and system of receiving annual reports for current and previous years. Also content analysis was applied and materials distributed Internet were used. In conditions of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) pandemic, instead of classical system of informational interaction at face-to-face coordination of annual report data, in extremely short terms new model of informational interaction of remote coordination and processing of annual report data was developed. The updated technological scheme was applied that included data transmission, remote coordination in VKS format, informing thriugh Telegram-channels and signing finalized forms with enhanced electronic digital signature. The complicated epidemiological situation regarding morbidity of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and as well as adoption of amendments in Federal legislation regarding provision of statistical observation forms in format of electronic document signed with electronic signature, required revision of format of statistical reports reception in 2020. The application of developed technology of collecting and processing annual reports data on medical statistics in online format permitted to dispense with both provision of hard copies versions of forms and reports and business trips of specialists from the subjects of the Russian Federation to Moscow that reduced expenses of the subjects of the Russian Federation when submitting annual reports. The developed mechanism of signing with unqualified electronic digital signature permitted to control data integrity. The applied mechanism for signing finalized concerted forms with enhanced electronic digital signature of public authority of the subject of the Russian Federation in the field of health protection ensured juridical significance of document provided. The establishment of base for further modernization of system of collecting statistical information from primary data, including subsequent implementation of structured electronic medical documents is proposed.

Satisfaction with online teaching of medical statistics during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey by the Education Committee of the Italian Society of Medical Statistics and Clinical Epidemiology.

On May 2020, after 2 months of online teaching with no face-to-face lectures, the Education Committee of the Italian scientific Society of Medical Statistics and Clinical Epidemiology conceived an online survey to assess satisfaction of Italian academics of medical statistics with online teaching and remote exams. This survey highlighted teachers' perceptions as well as opportunities and limitations of online teaching of medical statistics, biostatistics, and epidemiology. Although 61% of Italian academics of medical statistics declared to be favorable to provide online teaching of medical statistics, biostatistics, and epidemiology in the future, we recognize that distance education cannot substitute the unique value of teaching and knowledge exchange that could only be transmitted through a personal interaction between students and teachers. These indications may be useful to improve the quality of the teaching process in the future.

Raiders of the Lost Correlation: A Guide on Using Pearson and Spearman Coefficients to Detect Hidden Correlations in Medical Sciences.

Pearson and Spearman correlations are important tools for all scientific fields and are widely used in medical sciences, especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic emergency. This technical report has shown that conventional criteria for evaluating the adoption of these coefficients can conceal substantial scientific information regarding correlations that occur above or below a certain threshold. In particular, the Pearson coefficient can reveal hidden correlations even when data are not normally distributed. Finally, an optimized operational guide to reveal any hidden correlation is reported.