Statistical Training for Residents, Fellows, and Staff: How, What, and How Often?

• Activity Number: 390
• Type: Roundtables
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 11, 2015 : 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences
• Author(s): William Brady*
• Companies: Roswell Park Cancer Institute
• Keywords: teaching ; health sciences ; clinicians ; biostatistics ; short courses

Abstract

The inclusion of statistics in the education of hospital-based residents, fellows, and staff can be a valuable way to introduce fundamental statistical concepts to them. This statistical education can enable these clinicians to better understand and perform the research they do during their training and in the future, as well as improve their ability to read and understand the medical literature. However, the time available for such education is limited. For each of the past two years, I have taught a series of 6--8 one-hour lectures to oncology fellows covering a broad range of statistical topics, and I have tried a couple of teaching approaches. We will discuss what others have done in this or similar situations and focus on two issues for this setting: appropriate statistical content and the pros and cons of various teaching approaches.