BIOSTATISTICS & RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1. Research Methodology : Introduction

    a)  Types of clinical study designs: 

• Case studies 
• observational studies
• interventional studies

    b) Designing the methodology

    c)  Sample size determination and Power of a study 

• Determination of sample size for simple comparative experiments, 
• determination of sample size to obtain a confidence interval of specified width, 
• power of a study

    d) Report writing and presentation of data

2.1 Biostatistics :

    a)  Introduction        
    b)  Types of data distribution
    c)  Measures describing the central tendency distributions: 

• average, 
• median, 
• mode

    d) Measurement of the spread of data-

• range, 
• variation of mean, 
• standard deviation, 
• variance, 
• coefficient of variation, 
• standard error of mean.

2.2 Data graphics Construction and labeling of graphs: 

• Histogram, 
• Piecharts, 
• Scatter plots, 
• Semilogarthimic plots    

2.3 Basics of testing hypothesis :

    a) - Null hypothesis, 
        - level of significance, 
        - power of test, 
        - P value, 
        - statistical estimation of confidence intervals.

    b)  Level of significance (Parametric data): 

• students t test (paired and unpaired), 
• chi Square test, 
• Analysis of Variance (one-way and two-way)

    c) Level of significance (Non-parametric data): 

• Rank test, 
• Wilcoxan rank sum test, 
• Mann Whitney U test, 
• Kruskal-Wall is test (one way ANOVA)

    d)  Linear regression and correlation- correlation and correlation co-efficient.
    e)  Introduction to statistical software: 

• SPSS
• Epi Info
• SAS

2.4 Statistical methods in epidemiology     

• Incidence and prevalence, 
• relative risk, attributable risk

3. Computer applications in pharmacy

• Computer System in Hospital Pharmacy : Patterns of Computer use in Hospital Pharmacy  Patient record database management, Medication order entry  Drug labels and list  Intravenous solution and admixture, patient medication profiles, Inventory control, Management report & Statistics.

• Computer In Community Pharmacy : Computerizing the Prescription Dispensing process  Use of Computers for Pharmaceutical Care in community pharmacy Accounting and General ledger system

• Drug Information Retrieval & Storage :  Introduction  Advantages of Computerized Literature Retrieval  Use of Computerized Retrieval

Reference books:

    a. Pharmaceutical statistics- practical and clinical applications, Sanford Bolton 3rd edition, publisher Marcel Dekker Inc. NewYork.
    b. Drug Information- A Guide for Pharmacists, Patrick M Malone, Karen L Kier, John E Stanovich , 3rd edition, McGraw Hill Publications 2006