DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL SURGERY AND MEDICAL-SURGICAL SPECIALTIES
Master's Degree in School of Dentistry
Academic Year 2016/2017 - 1° Year

METODOLOGIA SCIENTIFICA E LINGUISTICA

Teaching Staff

Learning Objectives

• Medical Statistics
  

  The course begins with basic knowledge of statistics, presenting methods for descriptive statistics of various kinds of data. The fundamental tests used in biomedical statistics will be presented. Key concepts of epidemiological methodology will be presented. At the end of the course the student will be able to understand statistical results reported in biomedical literature, and to use simple techniques for statistical analysis and presentation of results.

• INFORMATICA
  
  At the end of the course the students should have a basic understanding of the structure and operation of a personal computer, to be able to perform the essential tasks of creating and managing documents, presentations, spreadsheets and databases. They must also be able to perform searches of data and documents on the network.
• LINGUA INGLESE
  

  The course aims at strengthening the students’ skills in conformity to level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. In particular, the course is set to develop the students’ vocabulary and the use of syntactic functions with respect to English for scientific and medical purposes and to provide students with a pragmatic tool for linguistic investigation and analysis of specific oral and written texts. Students will be able to: 1) interact with a degree of fluency that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible; 2) understand extended speech and lectures on scientific topics; 3) explain a viewpoint on medical and scientific issues, giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. Provide dentistry students the language skills to translate texts and scientific articles regarding their field of study. The reading of original texts in English language also allows them to improve their knowledge of useful syntax and grammar for the production of written texts. Vocabulary is also an important part of learning a language because it permits to surf the Internet for online consultation of the scientific literature, to stay up to date and to communicate.

Detailed Course Content

• Medical Statistics
  

  Introduction to statistics:

  • descriptive and inferential statistics
  • types of data: qualitative, ordinal, quantitative - discrete and continuous
  • data collection and presentation; graphical representations

  Descriptive Statistics:

  • frequencies and proportions; frequency distributions
  • quantiles and percentiles
  • means and other central tendency measures
  • standard deviation and other statistical dispersion measures

  Probability and statistical inference

  • probability distributions and probability density functions
  • sampling, inference and hypothesis testing: confidence intervals
  • false-positive and false-negative errors
  • sensibility and specificity; predictive values.

  Hypothesis testing

  • "Student's" t-test for means; “chi squared” test for frequencies
  • correlation and regression
  • elements of ANOVA and non-parametric methods
• INFORMATICA
  
  Introduction to Informatics Definition of Informatics Information processing cycle Information representation and coding Unit of measurement for digit information (bits, bytes) Algorithms and programs Boolean logic and logic circuits Personal Computer: Hardware components Computer basic components: CPU, memory, buses Storage devices. Floppy disks. Optical Discs: CD-ROM, DVD Peripheral input/output Video, pixels and color coding, Printers, Scanners, Modems Software Operating System Main functions of the Windows operating system, management of files and directories. Basic software: Operating system (Windows) Application software: word processing software, spreadsheet software, database, presentation software The applications of Office Word - Applications of writers in the profession and research. Excel - basic concepts of the spreadsheet. Collection and management of data in clinical trials. The statistical functions in Excel. Statistical processing of data from clinical trials using a spreadsheet. Access - Databases: Concepts, Relational Data Base. Data base clinical and health services. The electronic medical record. PowerPoint - translate the data related to a biological phenomenon in a graphical representation in the form of tables and histograms. Using a simple application for image manipulations Computer Networks Data transmission networks: Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area Networks (WAN) Internet: web addresses (URL) World Wide Web (WWW), hypertext, web browsers, search engines Mail Security, Computer Viruses Multimedia Searching for medical information on the Internet Criteria for formulating an effective search, logical operators. The quality of sites dedicated to medicine. Websites in medicine and health portals. Bots oriented medicine. Catalogues of care resources. Sites for finding guidelines. The main databases in the Internet and how to find. Bibliographic searches of MEDLINE: search free test search with Mesh Medline, Clinical Queries. Journals on-line: Database and catalog only on the site Unict.it
• LINGUA INGLESE
  

  Learn about the basics of English grammar and syntax for the oral and written comprehension of scientific texts and diagnostic reports. The Human Body, with particular attention to the teeth and mouth. The medical record. Diabetes and hypertension. The psychological approach in patient care (motivation, effective communication). Etiology, symptoms and treatment of oral disease (gingivitis, periodontitis, pulpitis). The dental hygiene, dental terminology. Who is the dentist and what does the dentist do. Blood tests. Dental emergencies (extraction, dental pain). Fixed prosthesis. Sinuses. Caries. Gingivitis. Dental erosion. The preservation of the tooth. Principles of cosmetic dentistry. Dental treatment in adults and in children.

Textbook Information

• Medical Statistics
  

  • Swinscow, Campbell. “Statistics at square one”, Wiley, 2009

    or:

    Pagano, Gauvreau. "Principles of biostatistics". Duxbury Press
• INFORMATICA
  
  D.P. Curtin e altri, Informatica di Base, McGraw-Hill
  - Testi per il conseguimento della “Patente europea del computer”:
  - IT4PS “Il foglio elettronico per Medicina e Farmacia”, McGraw-Hill
  - IT4PS “Le Basi di dati per Medicina e Farmacia”, McGraw-Hill
  - E. Santoro, Internet in medicina, Il Pensiero Scientifico
  
• LINGUA INGLESE
  

  S. Sciarretta, New Essential Grammar Structures, Terminology and Situations for Medical Purposes. Catania, S.p.e, 2011.