METODOLOGIA DELLA RICERCA ED EPIDEMIOLOGIA

6 CFU - 2° Semester

Teaching Staff

VINCENZO GUARDABASSO - Module Medical Statistics - MED/01 - 4 CFU
MICHELE MANGIAMELI - Module Information processing systems - ING-INF/05 - 2 CFU

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.
Information processing systems
The course has as its aims as to reach a scientific-disciplinary set of skills related to the design and implementation of information processing systems, as well as their management and use in different application contexts. The course will be supplied the basics and technologies related to the different aspects of a system of information processing, databases and information systems, the interaction between man and machine, coding, and electronic representation of the information.

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; tables; 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;
Epidemiology
- Ratios, proportions, rates: incidence and prevalence; Relative risk and odds ratio; Classification of epidemiological studies
Information processing systems
The aim of the course is to provide a set of scientific-disciplinary skills related to the implementation, management and application of processing systems of data. The course will introduce the main concepts of computer science and will provide the theoretical foundations of information processing systems, on databases, information systems, man-machine interaction, and on encoding and electronic representation of the information.

Textbook Information

Medical Statistics
Fowler, Jarvis, Chevannes - Practical statistics for nursing and health care, Wiley

any other handbook of medical statistics
Information processing systems
- Tanenbaum A., “Architettura dei computer: un approccio strutturato – quarta edizione”, UTET Libreria, 2000 (ISBN: 8877505931);
- Hennessy J., Patterson A.D., “Architettura dei computer: un approccio quantitativo”, Jackson Libri, Collana Università, 2001 (ISBN: 8825618433).

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