The Mentored Scholarly Activity (MSA) program has contracted with the Center for Innovative Design & Analysis (CIDA) and the Department of Biostatistics and Informatics to develop a biostatistics consulting resource that is available to all medical students when working on their MSA project. This document outlines this new resource.
Overarching goals
- To assist medical students with developing statistical literacy as applied to their project.
- Help the student develop a design and analysis framework that is doable by the medical student in consultation with their mentor and biostatistics faculty and graduate students.
- Provide peer-to-peer and one-on-one feedback on the design and analysis aspects of the student’s project.
Individual Consultation
Through our consulting clinic program, we offer students one-on-one consultations with a CIDA graduate research assistant, during which we can assist with the following:
- Review and assistance creating testable study hypotheses
- Choosing a study design
- How to calculate a sample size and create a justification
- Developing an analysis plan
- Reviewing analysis code or procedures
- Interpreting analysis output
- Review of tables and figures
We encourage students to attend as many clinics as are helpful throughout the duration of their project, and to come in the early phases of your study planning. Clinic appointments are available most weekdays. Students must register 48 hours prior to attending clinics.
Prior to registration, it is advised to review these links for organizing and format your data
Students must register 48-hours prior to attending any clinic:
Register here
Biostats Microgrant
If more extensive analyses are needed and funding is not available through the mentor, MSA students have the ability to apply for a small grant for additional analytical support from a CIDA biostatistician.
More information on submission requirements and deadlines for these grants can be found under the MSA small grant program tab at MSA Biostats Microgrant.
Collaborating with a biostatistician
In instances where it becomes clear the project requires design or analysis methodology well beyond the skill set of the medical student, the medical student and their faculty mentor will be referred to the Center for Innovative Design & Analysis. CIDA will develop a scope of work with anticipated costs. It is the expectations that the faculty mentor will help the student identify mechanisms for covering the costs of implementing such a study.
Questions? Write cida.admin@ucdenver.edu.
COMIRB:
COMIRB approval is required for all students conducting human subjects research. You will need to complete required training in order to submit a protocol or be added to an existing protocol.
CITI:
In the Select Your Organization Affiliation box, type University of Colorado Denver
Continue to enter name and email address.
Complete the following based on the requirements of your role:
When you log into CITI and affiliate with the University of Colorado Denver, you will find available courses listed below.
Human Subjects Training:
- If you are conducting biomedical research, select 'Group 1 Biomedical Investigators'.
- If you are conducting Social/Behavioral Research, select 'Group 2 Social and Behavioral Research'.
HIPAA:
- If your research involves access to Protected Health Information, you must also complete training related to the Health Information Portability and Accessibility Act (HIPAA) every three years.
- Select 'Citi Health Information Privacy and Security (HIPS) for Clinical Investigators'.
Good Clinical Practice (GCP):
- All NIH-funded clinical investigators and clinical trial staff who are involved in the conduct, oversight, or management of clinical trials must be trained in Good Clinical Practice (GCP), consistent with principles of the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) E6 (R2).
- Select 'Group 4: ICH/GCP - Meets NIH Requirements', or
- Select 'GCP for Clinical Trials with Investigational Drugs and Medical Devices (U.S. FDA Focus)'.
- Good Resources: Read the Getting Started Guide or watch the Getting Started Video.
Health Science Library:
The MSA program has a librarian assigned for each of the 5 thematic areas who can help with professional grade searches for background sections of proposals and with systematic reviews.
To make an appointment with the librarian:
Students should identify themselves as working on the MSA project when contacting the library.
- Basic (Laboratory Based) Science Research: Wladimir Labeikovsky, PhD (303-724-2114)
- Clinical Science Research: Kristen DeSanto, MSLS, MS, RD, AHIP (303-724-2121)
- Bioethics, Humanities, Arts & Education Research: Christ Piper, MLIS, AHIP (303-724-2170)
- Epidemiology, Public & Community Health Research: Ben Harnke, MLIS (303-724-2146)
- Global Health Research: Nina McHale, MSLS, AHIP (303-724-2133)
For Statistical Help, the Health Sciences Library has Statistical Workstation PCs for use:
1st Floor North Commons:
Third Pod Group (you can ask at the Service Desk)
Four PC workstations: HSL-P27 to P30 (marked with signage)
- Students using statistical applications have first priority.
- Students using VH Dissector Pro have second priority.
- If you are not using statistics applications or VH Dissector Pro, you may be asked to relocate.
Statistical Software:
SAS, SPSS, JMP Pro, and R with EpiTools
- Epi Info: Suite of lightweight software tools, delivers core ad-hoc epidemiologic functionality without the complexity or expense of large, enterprise applications
- Atlas.TI
- VH Dissector Pro (VH = Visible Human)
- Cn3D: A helper application for the web from NCBI which allows you to view 3D structures
- Microsoft Office Pro: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access
Web browsers: Chrome, IE, Firefox
Writing Center:
The Writing Center is available to assist with your writing for your MSA proposals and with scholarly papers that may result from your MSA project. The Writing Center is located in the HS library.
Organize Your Data!
There are multiple ways to collect and record data for a project. Often Excel is not the best database for clinical data collection in particular due to HIPPA and protected health information concerns (as opposed to benchtop research data). Learn about REDCap – a database for clinical research that also simplifies later importation of data into statistical analysis software. Use of REDCap requires completion of brief training, but this software is used nationwide.