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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials by Johns Hopkins University

4.7
stars
4,225 ratings

About the Course

Clinical trials are experiments designed to evaluate new interventions to prevent or treat disease in humans. The interventions evaluated can be drugs, devices (e.g., hearing aid), surgeries, behavioral interventions (e.g., smoking cessation program), community health programs (e.g. cancer screening programs) or health delivery systems (e.g., special care units for hospital admissions). We consider clinical trials experiments because the investigators rather than the patients or their doctors select the treatment the patients receive. Results from randomized clinical trials are usually considered the highest level of evidence for determining whether a treatment is effective because trials incorporates features to ensure that evaluation of the benefits and risks of treatments are objective and unbiased. The FDA requires that drugs or biologics (e.g., vaccines) are shown to be effective in clinical trials before they can be sold in the US. The course will explain the basic principles for design of randomized clinical trials and how they should be reported. In the first part of the course, students will be introduced to terminology used in clinical trials and the several common designs used for clinical trials, such as parallel and cross-over designs. We will also explain some of the mechanics of clinical trials, like randomization and blinding of treatment. In the second half of the course, we will explain how clinical trials are analyzed and interpreted. Finally, we will review the essential ethical consideration involved in conducting experiments on people....

Top reviews

SS

Feb 25, 2023

awesome detailedoverviwe of clinical trials. it gave me a new insight. Improved chances of my job selection in the field. I improved on subject a lot during the course. Thank you teachers and coursera

TS

Jul 3, 2018

High quality course ! covering important areas and detailed lectures, more and better than a mere introduction. Congrats ! My only regret : I'd have liked to hear more about NI and equivalence trials

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576 - 600 of 708 Reviews for Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials

By Andrea E

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Jul 16, 2021

Great!

By Ali O m

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Nov 19, 2020

thanks

By Sevda M

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Nov 15, 2020

thanks

By Ashwin K

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Aug 13, 2017

Good !

By AYUSHI P

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Jun 20, 2021

GOOD

By Md W

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Apr 21, 2020

...

By Monu S

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May 12, 2020

v

By Kara H

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Sep 21, 2017

I

By Takashi A M

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Dec 18, 2016

This was a good introductory course into clinical trials, providing an overview of its principles, features and design. The lectures were good and clear, and the accompanying slides were just as useful. I will admit to being occasionally lost on certain concepts, especially with regards to those which would've normally been covered in the biostatistics class, as Ms. Drye mentioned once or twice -- after all, I believe this is a class which is probably offered in conjunction with others. That notwithstanding, I can now consider myself aptly familiar with clinical trials and what they entail, thanks to this course.

I will say, however, that having just 10 questions in the quiz is hardly neither exhaustive nor -- and I suppose this goes without saying -- a true test of a good grasp of the course. For instance, I'd read most of the supplemental material for Ethics (week 4) only to realize that that week's quiz could've been passed using common sense alone. I felt somewhat disappointed by that. And also, while one lecturer was very clear in her presentation and discourse, the other wasn't really; more often than not, I was confused by her sentences.

By Simon V d b

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Dec 15, 2017

The course was informative and fun, with helpful outlines of actual clinical trials to support the theory. While the length of some videos (a few are >30 minutes) might turn some people off, this did not turn out to be a problem as the course content was very engaging, at least to me. Following both the slides and the voice-over proved to be difficult, but fortunately they seem to completely overlap, so focusing on one is a valid approach The quiz quiestions were easy, sometimes to the point of being obvious, and perhaps the course would benefit from a more varied range of question types instead of just true/false questions. The discussion prompts, on the other hand, were very thought-provoking and challenged the learner to put what they learned into practice. They are easily the highlights of this course. Overall, quite an enjoyable experience.

By Glaudio A G G

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Apr 19, 2020

Very useful to learn about the different clinical trial designs, as for studies carried out by pharmas and those not conducted in USA, are less diverse in their design. The course is also really good for getting up up to date on contemporary ethical issues and some key concepts upon which clinical research is based on (from the scientific point of view). As you commented in the wrap up video, it will be interesting to develop a class on data monitoring and get deeper inside the role of a clinical research associate (or monitoring).

By Deleted A

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Aug 23, 2019

When I started this course, I had no idea how important it is for me to understand what goes on in the background of clinical research and how important are the ethical considerations. Now, I think I have started developing a sense of clinical research. Being a general surgeon in India, this class has helped me a lot and I hope this will benefit me and my patients with their treatment selection. I thank the instructors of this course for making it looks so simple to understand.

By aditi

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Mar 27, 2020

I am healthcare consultant with no clinical background. This course was good for basic understanding of clinical trial designs and related jargons. It definitely enhanced my knowledge on the subject. Although I would have found it easier if some concepts were taught in a simpler manner & perhaps using in the end an actual trial case study to revise all the concepts.

By Emmanuel B B

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Dec 8, 2017

Great course content. Well elaborated and easy to understand. It is an excellent starter for students wishing to pursue clinical research studies as it presents the important first steps for the design and interpretation of clinical trial research. Thanks to you Drs Janet Holbrook and Lea Drye, and The Johns Hopkins University, as well as the entire Coursera team.

By Fiona C

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Dec 6, 2020

This course has been useful to learn. The most disappointing about this course was that other students did not participate in the discussion seriously which made the discussion portion of no benefit to learners like me who are willing to participate seriously in the discussion. It highly discourage learners to participate in the discussion potion for each week.

By Sergio H P

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Apr 25, 2022

Excelente curso, material didáctico que te mantiene entretenido. La dificultad de los examenes es la justa. En mi caso por una cuestión personal no pude finalizar el curso en el plazo estimado y se me permitió modificar la fecha, eso me pareció muy bueno ya que me permitió finalizar el curso sin perder mi progreso. Lo recomiendo!

By Mrinmoyee K C

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May 5, 2021

Thanks to the coordinators. I have gathered knowledge in many topics. It is really helpful.

I have the following suggestions:

Kindly avoid long sentences and overlapping statements

More clarity would be better (through citing more examples) when explaining the statistical parameters (helpful for the beginners)

Best regards

Mrinmoyee

By Monika Z

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Sep 30, 2022

Overall good introduction to clinical trials. Easy to follow and understand the key concepts of CT design, analysis and evaluation of results. Good course for people who already have some idea about reserach methods in the clinical field as several terms wouldn't be so obvious for people without this experience.

By Simon P

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Nov 20, 2017

It was fine. Janet talked kind of slowly, but the option to increase the video speed made this a non-significant problem. The difficulty was fine for a newcomer to the field of clinical research, and I liked the use of examples. The examples did use a bit much repetition from previous info sections. Good course!

By Akshay C

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Oct 22, 2016

Clear, precise and very interesting content. I am working with Clinical Trials for 18 month, this helped me to learn about the bigger picture.

Suggestion to Course creators: A module focussed on what is a Clinical Trial before we start with module 1 would be extremely helpful.

By Sayandip M

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Oct 22, 2019

A fantastic foundational course that covers all the essentials to understand and appreciate the design and interpretation of clinical trials. Lectures are succinct followed by really challenging quizzes which allows one to test his/her understanding of the subject matter.

By Alexandre F G

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Feb 22, 2017

Well done, very systematic and well selected, well structured, focused analysis supported by appropriate examples, definitions and discussions. Lectures are a little bit dry, but I guess this might be due in part to the nature of the subject! Thank you!

Alex Ginev

By Shruti G

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Jan 17, 2020

From this course, I learned a lot but many slides had way too much text and were difficult to read and listen to at the same time. more diagrams and flowcharts would be highly appreciated. Examples for different case scenarios were very helpful in learning.

By mariella b l c

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Mar 27, 2019

I'm very pleased with the design and interpretation of clinical trials course. It is well constructed and the lectures are interesting and focused.

I recomnend this course for those who want to gain some knownledge about this subject.

By Nam N

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Sep 18, 2019

This course provides me with valuable new knowledge about clinical trials. Although I had taught myself before, I still get various interesting points, e.g. types of trial designs, ITT analysis, etc. Thank you very much!