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

4.7
stars
4,227 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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601 - 625 of 708 Reviews for Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials

By Toni R

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Jun 29, 2019

Maybe the tests are a bit easy, apart from that the lectures are well defined and cover in detail the topics related to the course. The example trials are very well selected to understand the information of the lectures.

By Chao W

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Dec 8, 2017

Good explanations but the slides are quite static. When the lectuer refers something on the slide maybe they can consider also highlight on the slight, e.g. using animations, especially for complex tables?

By Valentina

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Nov 19, 2020

Good course overall. Some information was complex and the slides were not always complete. I personally found the first 2-3 quizzes quite difficult. However, the course is useful and interesting.

By Nina H P

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Oct 4, 2016

The powerpoints and audio lectures are very clear and concise, much appreciated. I would also appreciate more exercises or reading materials, to help solidify our understanding of the topics.

By Harsha K

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May 6, 2020

As a new learner of clinical trials, I learned a lot about the design of randomized clinical trials and the various factors that could impact the outcomes. I thorough;y enjoyed the course.

By Isabel O C

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May 13, 2020

Very informative, creates a good base for further work. I enjoyed the examples within the lectures and especially appreciate the chapter of ethics as I find it extremly important.

By Anirudh P

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Sep 10, 2020

To anyone who likes statistics, analytics, interpretation of scientific literature or the story behind the design of credible clinical trials, this course is a good recommend!

By Muhamad A B A B

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Aug 25, 2020

Thorough course with pretty good explanation. However it can be quite difficult to understand if you have limited pre-existing knowledge. The quizzes are quite tricky.

By MEENA R

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Sep 20, 2016

The course clearly explains the concepts of clinical trials with great detail. The course was taught in a structured manner and helped me gain knowledge in this field.

By Tomas M

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Sep 17, 2020

Great summary of CTs! Shame that it is only from 2013 and does not reflect current approaches to management of clinical trials, would be worth to update this course.

By Rosina T

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Feb 17, 2020

Very good course. I would prefer to have subtitles (in english or spanish) in every week, but the content was really good. I hope to learn more about clinical trials

By lingjing

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May 28, 2019

Excellent classes for beginners in the clinical trials.I learnt about basic knowledge, design points and constitutive interpretation for different kinds of trials~

By Samuel K

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Mar 4, 2018

Pitched at the right level as an introductory course. Having some exposure to clinical trials helps complete in a timely manner, but there's still a lot to learn

By Mohammed M A

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Sep 22, 2016

Good course but I hope if there are readings after each video to improve the understanding of information with more simplifying the content of ethics lesson.

By Panagiotis A

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Sep 22, 2017

The courses were well structured and included a lot of information. It would be more interesting if there were more participation in the discussion fora

By Riona R

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Jun 2, 2020

Great course. It helped me gather more knowledge on how trials are conducted and many ways through which results of the trial can be analyzed.

By Kanika

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Jun 11, 2020

The course is very informative and good but I have not received a free of cost certificate. I have an only option of purchase certificate

By Kasey K

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May 23, 2023

Lea Drye is the best of the two instructors. The other is monotone and just reads off the slides, her lecturing skills need improvement.

By Sofía B T

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Mar 7, 2018

I liked it a lot, but I believe that assignments were easy, so I didn't needed to pay too much atention to the lectures to pass them.

By Saurabh K

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Apr 13, 2020

Very properly organised coursework and lectures and up to date information and expert insights really help in understanding better.

By K T S

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Jun 24, 2018

Good course for beginners. I would have liked it to be slightly longer - by a week or two - to cover more material. But still good.

By Suraya S

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Jul 9, 2023

It was well thought off and provide important insights into clinical trial. I do wish for more examples thrown in and discussed.

By Xiomara G

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Aug 26, 2019

This course was very interesting a little hard that I had to do optional lectures to understand better, I passed the evaluation.

By learn t s

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Jul 24, 2017

nice course .. excellent lecturer ... thanks very much i advice it for every one work in drug field especially in R&D department

By souro r

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May 18, 2020

Excellent lessons teaching every aspect of clinical trial with multiple examples and explaining analysis of the data in-depth.