This Postgraduate Diploma in Paediatric Infectious Diseases programmeat Oxford University is designed to be taken by Academic Clinical Fellows alongside work commitments, the Health Research programme exists in order to enable students to:
- develop skills of research, design and data analysis in both qualitative and quantitative research
- critically evaluate health research
- identify, critically appraise and incorporate the results of medical and social science research into the day-to-day decision-making of clinical, scientific and administrative practice
- apply the principles of evidence-based practice in health care settings
- plan how to implement the findings of research to improve health care
- use theories and principles underpinning clinical research to inform their own research practice.
The programme is delivered through the Department for Continuing Education, with the expertise in curriculum design and teaching drawn from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, and the Oxford University Clinical Academic Graduate School.
Aims
Course aims
At the end of the course students will be able to:
- demonstrate a knowledge of the principles, methods and techniques appropriate for solving evidence-based health care/health-research problems and be able to translate (through a critical comprehension of the relative advantages and disadvantages) that understanding into good clinical practice
- demonstrate a range of research skills enabling them to complete research successfully, either as part of a research team or as an individual
- acquire, interpret and analyse biological information with a critical understanding of the appropriate contexts for their use through the study of the existing primary literature in the field
- apply skills and expertise gained across the medical and biological sciences expected of professional researchers
Students will know and understand:
- health-care organizations, their management and the changing context in which they operate
- the ethical issues in health research and research governance
- methods to integrate and synthesise different sorts of information, from diverse sources, when making both individual patient and health-policy decisions in a wide range of situations
- the key issues for evidence-based practice in their own professional area or specialty
- how to work comfortably in situations of uncertainty and make sound judgements in the absence of definitive evidence
- research methods and concepts in the field of health and health care
All graduates of the Postgraduate Certificate in Health Research will be able to:
- understand the role of most commonly used methods appropriate for specifying problems through a critical comprehension of the relative advantages and disadvantages of these methods
- understand and express the main principles of some commonly applied techniques and methods
- explain the rationale for the selection of tools used in the analysis of phenomena.
Programme details
The Postgraduate Certificate is normally completed between 1-2 years. It consists of three assessed taught modules and includes thorough introductions to the principles of evidence-based practice in health, and to study design and research methods.
The two compulsory modules are:
- The Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care
- Introduction to Study Design and Research Methods
The third module may be chosen from the following list:
- Clinical Trial Management
- Mixed Methods in Health Research
- Knowledge into Action
- Evidence-based Diagnosis and Screening
- Introduction to Statistics for Health Care Research
- Systematic Reviews
- Randomized Controlled Trials
- Qualitative Research Methods
- The Structure of Clinical Trials and Experimental Therapeutics
- How to do Research on Therapeutic Interventions: Protocol preparation
- Biological Therapeutics
- Pharmacodynamics, Biomarkers and Personalised Therapy
- Adverse drug reactions, drug interactions and Pharmacovigilance
- Drug development, Pharmacokinetics and Imaging
