Research Methods in Clinical Science, CLS492

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID: CLS 492
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) course for students in their clinical internship year by Dr. Jahan Abdi at California State University Dominguez Hills. The open textbook provides clinical laboratory science interns with detailed explanations of basic statistical concepts including but not limited to sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, ROC curves or likelihood ratios, which are applied to evaluation of diagnostic lab tests and interpretation of diagnostic data. The book also covers types of data (e.g., nominal, ordinal, interval, etc.), measurement reliability, and the biological variation that affects laboratory findings. The critical appraisal of clinical research and the practical application of laboratory findings in risk assessment and patient prognosis are emphasized in this book. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to help students manage their financial burdens during clinical internship while having access to a simplified, reliable and applicable textbook at no cost. Most students access the open textbook in a digital format (online) the link to which is provided in their course syllabus and on Canvas.

Course Title and Number - Research Methods in Clinical Science, CLS 492
Brief Description of course highlights:  Overview of relevant theoretical concepts, methods and applications utilized in biologic and clinical science research. Critical analysis of literature review, data, and published research studies in biologic and clinical sciences. 

Student population: The students who take this course are already graduated with B.Sc. in CLS and are selected for clinical internship year. This is a clinical lab training period during which students are trained in real world lab practice while they still attend academia for didactic clinical courses.  

Learning or student outcomes: 
- Discuss pre-clinical and clinical trials, name and explain the phase of a clinical trial.
- Name, define, and identify common forms of bias in clinical observation (selection, measurement, confounding).
- Discuss the performance of a measurement in terms of validity (accuracy), reliability (precision), range.
- Define and calculate true positive, false positive, true negative, false negative.
- Discuss how sensitivity/specificity relate to true/false positives & negatives.
- Discuss how ROC curves are used to establish cut off points of an assay.
- Discuss incidence studies (cohort studies).
- Discuss and calculate odds ratio in case control studies.
- Define what is considered a randomized controlled trial .
- Describe how to perform a simple critique of a research article.

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title:  Clinical Epidemiology: The Essentials, 6th Ed., Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2005

Brief Description:  The book provides chapters on common basic concepts in clinical epidemiology. Practice cases (scenarios) with solutions provided in each chapter help clarify the concepts. I usually generate assignments based on these concepts as part of students’ assessments. Students are also encouraged to design scenarios based on their understanding of these concepts and discuss them in the classroom. This will prepare them for their final project of the course. Additionally, navigation through the ebook chapters is extremely easy for students.

Please provide a link to the resource  
https://oce-ovid-com.libproxy.csudh.edu/book?SerialCode=02174537

Authors:  Grant S. Fletcher, MD, MPH

Student access:  Students access the open textbook in a digital format (online) the link to which is provided in their course syllabus and on Canvas.

Supplemental resources:  For this course I usually discuss specific papers in clinical and basic medical science research with related content in the classroom. Students also learn how to use links on the CSUDH library page to search for any published clinical study and obtain the full text. This is especially very helpful for them when they are working on their projects. Besides these, I also provide slides of specific CLS discipline cases for students to connect a general statistical concept. For instance, how to apply sensitivity and specificity tests only to coagulation tests, or only to hematology tests, etc.

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook. The cost savings is $70.
License: The license is a traditional full copyright license: https://shop.lww.com/Clinical-Epidemiology/p/9781975109554. But the library has an unlimited-user ebook license, so we provide access to all current CSUDH community members.  

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process
Please provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost.  The main motivation to adopt this free ebook was to help students have access to a simplified and applied source and at the same time save money as majority of them struggle with other financial burdens.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course?  The faculties who had taught this course before brought this textbook to my attention. I decided to continue using it after a thorough reading. 

Sharing Best Practices:  The sustainability of open education relies on sharing with others. Please give suggestions for faculty who are just getting started with OER or Low-Cost options.  List anything you wish that you had known earlier.  I believe, at least for undergrad students, costly and complicated textbooks may not always be the best option. We as faculties should look for sources which explain complex concepts in a simplified way, this is what helps students grow academically. Also, based on published studies, adopting OER will improve retention rate and lower withdrawal rate.

Describe any challenges you experienced, and lessons learned.  The lessons I learned included better student engagement, better student understanding of the content, and a smooth flow of the material. So far, there has been no challenge for me in this course. 

Instructor Name - Jahan Abdi
I am a Clinical Laboratory Science professor at the California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Please provide a link to your university page.
https://www.csudh.edu/clinical-science/about-us/faculty-staff/bio/jahan-abdi

Please describe the courses/course numbers that you teach.
CLS 307 Clinical Hematology
CLS 306 Clinical Immunology and Immunohematology
CLS 310 Coagulation and Hemostasis
CLS 441 Correlations in Clinical Chemistry
CLS 442 Correlations in Clinical Hematology/Urinalysis
CLS 443 Correlations in Clinical Immunohematology/Serology
CLS 492 Research Methods in Clinical Sciences

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.  I am a basic medical science researcher and see teaching through the lens of a researcher. Basic science research is quintessential to acquiring basic concepts and must be part of the curriculum. Students must then have the opportunity to critically examine this acquired knowledge and use it in a novel way to solve real-world problems. My vision as a teacher is to create a classroom environment in which students are engaged, attentive and interactive. Involvement in discussion, questioning and challenging each other can make information stick. I emphasize basic concepts in every course I teach. Although this may not be enticing to students, I always elaborate effectively to correlate the basics with applied/practical aspects of the course. This will help students have a deep understanding of the subject materials and learn how to apply theoretical concepts to laboratory practice.