Abstract:
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If you are asked to join a journal club, you can just show up and answer any statistical questions that arise. But you can also use this as a formal opportunity to teach Statistics. To do this, you need to build your own expertise in Evidence Based Medicine and target your teaching to those aspects of statistics related to critical appraisal. Fortunately, this is broad enough to cover most important areas of Statistics. You have the opportunity to explain why a convenience sample limits the generalizability of research findings, how to interpret a Kaplan-Meier plot of survival, and when randomization is unethical or impractical. If you want to use the journal club as a formal program to teach statistics, you need to assess knowledge of statistics prior to the start of the journal club, work closely with the medical expert in selecting appropriate journal articles, and prepare supplementary lectures to build the statistical skills that students need to properly appraise the weight of evidence. You should seize this opportunity because students in a journal club are far more receptive to what you teach than they would be in a traditional Statistics class.
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