A pair of courses offered recently by the Department of Otolaryngology at WashU Medicine provided a strong foundation for students and trainees hoping to optimize study design, statistical analysis, reporting, and critical appraisal of medical literature.
CREST highlights study design and data analysis
Clinical Research Education and Statistics Training or CREST, held October 26-28 on the medical school campus, was a three-day workshop designed to guide participants in areas of study design and outcome assessment methods. According to Kallogjeri, participants gained experience with biostatistics, data analysis, clinical predictive modeling, and machine learning applications in healthcare.
“Additionally, the workshop provided strategies to enhance effective communication and manuscript writing strategies for disseminating research findings,” she said. “As editors at JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, we have recognized a gap in knowledge among the authors of manuscripts submitted to the journal, highlighting the need for educational initiatives like these workshops.”
Critical Appraisal promotes evidence-based clinical decisions
CREST was followed by a full-day seminar held November 15 – The Midwest Critical Appraisal Workshop – that highlighted skills in evaluating the validity of clinical research, making evidence-based clinical decisions, and effectively applying research findings to improve patient care.
For Piccirillo, the workshops offer a significant opportunity to directly impact the patient care mission in the field of otolaryngology.
“We believe that research methodology and critical appraisal are essential skills that directly impact patient care,” he said. “Through these two workshops we aimed to provide attendees with practical and accessible training on foundational research methods and to empower clinicians at all career stages to become more confident and responsible consumers and producers of medical evidence.”
Participants included local trainees and others from across the nation at different career stages. Second year Rutgers resident Hannaan Choudhry, MD, traveled from New Jersey to attend CREST.
“The workshop was an incredible interactive experience that expanded my skills of research design and statistics,” he said. I am eager to apply this new knowledge to my research and would recommend the course to any medical trainees looking to elevate their research capabilities.”
Faculty for the courses included Course Directors Jay Piccirillo, MD, and Dorina Kallogjeri, MD, MPH, Judith Lieu, MD, MSPH, Lauren Roland, MD, MSCI, and Matthew Shew, MD. Invited guest speaker Roger Lewis, MD, PhD, senior statistical editor at JAMA and professor of Emergency Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, provided keynote addresses at the Midwest Critical Appraisal Workshop.
For more information on these courses, contact Jay Piccirillo, MD, at piccirij@wustl.edu or Dorina Kallogjeri, MD, MPH, at kallogjerid@wustl.edu.