Health Research Fundamentals

COURSE OUTLINE: ICMR - National Institute of Epidemiology is offering online programmes on conduct of human biomedical research. The programme will be offered as NIE-ICMR e-Certificate – NIeCer - Courses. The first in this series, NIeCer 101:Health Research Fundamentals, is a basic level course in health research methods. It will explain the fundamental concepts in epidemiology and bio-statistics related to research methods. This course will provide an overview of steps and principles for designing biomedical and health research studies among human participants. We expect this course to be useful for individuals interested in pursuing health research in the roles of study investigators, clinical/public health researchers (physicians, counselors, research associates, social scientists, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, data and quality managers etc.), scientists, ethics committee members and project managers.

Introduction to Health Research.
Formulating research question, hypothesis and objectives.
Literature review.
Measurement of disease frequency.
Descriptive study designs.
Analytical study designs.
Experimental study designs: Clinical trials.
Validity of epidemiological studies.
Qualitative research methods: An overview.
Measurement of study variables.
Sampling methods.
Calculating sample size and power.
Selection of study population.
Study plan and project management.
Designing data collection tools.
Principles of data collection.
Data management.
Overview of data analysis.
Ethical framework for health research.
Conducting clinical trials.
Preparing a concept paper for research projects.
Elements of a protocol for research studies.