Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Teaching Of Biostatistics And Epidemiology In Medical Schools: How Do We Fare Compared With Developed Countries, Vijay Tiwari, Kuldeep Kumar, Sherin Raj

Kuldeep Kumar

Background Biostatistics is taught in almost all medical schools at the undergraduate and the postgraduate levels as a core course and is a prerequisite to epidemiology, public health and evidence-based medicine. However, it has to be taught in a different way in medical schools as compared with how it is taught to the students studying MSc (Biostatistics) or in the Statistics Department in universities. Objectives (1) To review the experience of teaching biostatistics in medical schools in India and compares the same with abroad (2) How best the curriculum can be designed as per the need of the medical students …

Evaluation Of Student Outcomes In Online Vs. Campus Biostatistics Education In A Graduate School Of Public Health, John Mcgready, Ron Brookmeyer

Ron Brookmeyer

Objective: To compare student outcomes between concurrent online and on-campus sections of an introductory biostatistics course offered at a U.S. school of public health in 2005. Methods: Enrolled students (95 online, 92 on-campus) were invited to participate in a confidential online survey. The course outcomes were compared between the two sections adjusting for differences in student characteristics. Results: Seventy-two online (76%) and 66 (72%) on-campus enrollees participated. Unadjusted final exam scores for the online and on-campus sections were respectively 85.1 and 86.3 (p = 0.50) in term 1, and 87.7 and 86.9 (p=0.58) in term 2. After adjustment for student …

Improved Buehler Limits Based On Refined Designated Statistics , Chris Lloyd, Paul Kabaila

Chris J. Lloyd

The Buehler upper confidence limit is as small as possible, subject to the constraints that (a) its coverage probability never falls below nimonal and (b) it is a non-decreasing function of a designated statistic. The designated statistic may have ties among its possible values.

We prove that breaking such ties by a sufficiently small

modification can never increase the Buehler limit. We also prove that, under commonly satisfied conditions, breaking ties by a sufficiently small modification will result in an improved i.e. smaller Buehler limit. We conclude that designated statistics should not contain ties, apart from ties justified by symmetry …