What is the right model of statistics training for physician researchers?

I have always learned the most when applying to my own data, or a mock dataset with the same structure as one that I’ll use. Solving problems for me burns the knowledge into my brain much better than any didactic lecture. I think this is pretty universal, but others may have different learning styles.

There will always be a small subset of motivated students willing to learn R. As a non-programmer, the RStudio suite and the ability to output html results finally allowed me to make the switch. I have plenty of opinions about how non-programmers can be introduced to R and am happy to talk with you about. I am not sure that I could have used R inititially for Biostats I (circa 2004). Maybe if there was an intensive introductory programming/R course, it could be done.

Another topic that needs plenty of coverage: data management, databases, file naming, variable naming, validation, etc. I know that Dan Byrne covered this up front in our course but there can never be too much attention paid to this. I know plenty of basic scientists that don’t have a firm grasp on this and could use it. It seems important enough that it could be expanded into a separate course.

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