UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL

LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE

All courses taught at the School are for postgraduates

ORGANISATION OF STATISTICS TEACHING

Courses in Medical Statistics and in Epidemiology are included in the syllabuses of all Master courses. The teaching of statistics and epidemiology on the Masters in Tropical Medicine, Tropical Paediatrics, Veterinary Parasitology, Medical Microbiology, Medical Entomology and Parasitology and Diploma in Tropical Child Health is the responsibility of Dr Michael Chance, Dr Ian Hastings and Dr Luis Cuevas. The Master in Community Health is the responsibility of Carrol Preston.

MASTER COURSES

The emphasis of the teaching is on material relevant to the future professional responsibilities of the course participants. All students receive an introductory course in medical statistics but this is integrated with epidemiology and computing. Subjects covered include design (of descriptive, case control and cohort surveys and of clinical trials), descriptive statistics and statistical inference for proportions, means and regression. Participants are encouraged to use database, statistical and graphics packages to manage and analyse their data. Particular emphasis is given to Epi2000. These skills are consolidated through epidemiological research projects undertaken in Liverpool and during a three-month placement overseas. The San Serriffe Game is used to illustrate the relevance of statistical techniques in the conduct of a simulated epidemiological survey. The master courses are of one year's duration during which statistics and epidemiology teaching cover 1.5 modules in December and January. Participants are given assignments and have statistics and epidemiology in their examinations.

NAME OF CONTACT

Dr Michael Chance, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L3 5QA.

Tel: 0151 708 9393 ext 3232
Fax: 0151 708 5233
email: mchance@liverpool.ac.uk