> Would you like to brush up your knowledge on methodological issues in
> analysing pharmaceutical and medical data? 
> Do you want to find out more about software packages used by statisticians
> and researchers in the pharmaceutical and medical worlds? 
> Have a look below at the courses on pharmaceutical and medical statistics
> currently on offer from the RSS's Professional Development Centre. Full
> details are available at www.rss.org.uk/courses
> <http://www.rss.org.uk/courses> . New courses are being added to the
> programme monthly. 
> 
> *****  RSS Professional Development Centre - Training Courses *****
>  
> 
> Questionnaire Design, Dr. Pamela Campanelli, 10th December 2007
> Through looking at a wide range of pitfalls, this course explores ways to
> assess the effectiveness of existing questionnaires as well as how to
> write successful new questionnaires. It brings together key points from
> the research literature on questionnaire design and addresses practical
> concerns. Common  errors in the wording of individual questions are
> discussed as well as how to combine individual questions into a meaningful
> questionnaire. Also covered are the special concerns faced in writing
> questions for interview surveys versus self-completion surveys.
> An Introduction to Stata, Timothy Collier, 13th December 2007
> This one-day course aims to give a basic introduction to Stata for people
> with no previous experience of Stata but who wish to go on to use it for
> research purposes. This course will introduce the Stata working
> environment, demonstrate how to load data from a variety of sources (e.g.
> Excel) and then teach the fundamentals of data checking, processing and
> management.
> Write Clearly: Write to be Understood, Tony Greenfield, 28-29 January 2008
> Do you write about your work to show how clever you are? Or do you write
> about your work because you want to tell people about something that will
> interest them, and perhaps help them? Do you write only for academic
> journals in your own discipline, or do you write for the wider population
> of scientists and engineers, or even for the general population? In this
> hands-on workshop we shall discuss the writing of research work for
> different media and for different readerships. It provides the opportunity
> to discuss and develop your current work, as delegates are encouraged to
> send in or bring along a current article to work on with the presenter.
> An Introduction to S-Plus and R, Andrew Jack, 31st January 2008
> This one-day course aims to give a basic introduction to S-Plus and R for
> people with no or little previous experience.  The course will introduce
> the S-Plus and R working environments, demonstrate how to load data from a
> variety of sources (e.g.Excel) and then teach the basics of data
> manipulation, visualisation and analysis in R and S-Plus.  The course will
> focus on the programming language only, and not the graphical user
> interface.
> Bayesian Adaptive Designs, Andy Grieve and Mike K Smith, 15 January 2008
> This course serves as an introduction to the field of Bayesian Adaptive
> Designs. Attendees will learn where these designs fit into the class of
> data-dependent designs in which decisions about the conduct of the trial
> depending on accumulating data. The course covers many of the available
> Bayesian adaptive designs and the emphasis of the course is firmly on the
> practical aspects rather than on underlying theory and philosophy of
> Bayesian statistics.
> Missing Data, James Carpenter & Mike Kenward, 4-5 February 2008
> The aims of this workshop are to help participants: develop an
> appreciation of the issues that arise when data are missing and explain
> common jargon; develop an intuition for the shortcomings of simple methods
> for coping with missing data; develop an intuition for direct model-based,
> multiple imputation-based and weighting approaches for the analysis of
> partially observed data, and explore software that implements these
> methods; understand the importance of sensitivity analysis and how it can
> be carried out; learn from each other by discussing their experiences.
> This workshop is for applied statisticians from most background (e.g.
> medical, social science), statistically able researchers (e.g.
> epidemiologists, social scientists, economists).
> Meta Analysis, Stephen Senn, 28-29 February 2008
> The course will be invaluable for all those involved in meta-analysis of
> pharmaceuticals, whether as consumer or producer, or working for sponsor,
> regulator, contract research organisation or academia.
Understanding Statistics in Medical Literature, Nicola Bright, 17 March 2008
> This course looks at the fundamentals of statistics in a medical setting
> to enable researchers to understand the statistics they read in research
> papers.  Statistical concepts will be introduced through real examples
> taken from the medical literature.  Extracts from papers will be discussed
> and interpreted.  Delegates are encouraged to bring a paper that they are
> studying and have queries over to the open discussion at the end.  This
> workshop is for those in professions allied to medicine such as nurses,
> midwives, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and radiologists who
> wish to have a greater understanding of the statistics printed in journal
> papers.
> Medical Statistics Revision, Nicola Bright, March 2008
> This course revises the fundamentals of statistics in a medical setting to
> enable doctors to understand the statistics they read in research papers.
> Statistical concepts will be introduced through real examples taken from
> the medical literature.  Extracts from papers will be discussed and
> interpreted.  This workshop is for junior doctors looking for a revision
> course in basic statistics.
Effective Presentation, Peter English, 18 March 2008
> This one-day course is for those who would like to learn more about
> structuring, planning and presenting information orally.  Delegates learn
> how to present complex material in a way that aids the audience's
> understanding, reduce their anxiety levels and use Microsoft PowerPoint to
> best effect.  The course is designed to complement the RSS 'Presenting
> Data' course by covering more general presentation skills.  This course is
> for statisticians, managers and researchers who are expected to deliver
> presentations, and who would like to be more polished and confident in
> doing so.
> Multilevel Modelling, Harvey Goldstein & Fiona Steele, 19-20 May 2008
> This course is designed to give participants a solid grounding in the
> theory and application of multilevel models. The course will be based
> around theoretical sessions followed by "hands on" practical sessions
> illustrating the theoretical concepts. The hands on sessions will use the
> MLwiN software package. This course is for statisticians and quantitative
> researchers with an interest in the analysis of hierarchically structured
> data. Previous participants have included university researchers from the
> social sciences, medicine and public health, and government statisticians
> (e.g. DfES, Home Office, ONS). The course will not assume a high level of
> statistical knowledge, but participants should be familiar with the
> application and interpretation of multiple regression analysis.
Cointegration Models in Statistics and Econometrics, Robert Sollis, 29-30
May 2008
This advanced level short course deals with the econometric modelling of
cointegrated time series.  The course focuses in detail on both the
Engle-Granger approach to modelling cointegrated time series and the
Johansen vector-based approach.  Testing for cointegration will be
comprehensively discussed.  Recent extensions including nonlinear
cointegration models and cointegration in the presence of structural breaks
will also be covered.
Relevant statistical theory so as to fully understand the concept of
cointegration will be explained, however the course will also focus on how
to apply cointegration models to actual data and numerous empirical examples
will be used throughout.  Many of these will be from economics and finance
although examples from other subject areas will be used.
> Basic Statistics for Professions Allied to Medicine, David Boniface, 10-11
> September 2008
> This two-day hands-on workshop assumes no prior knowledge of statistics
> and is designed for researchers who want to learn, review and develop
> their skills to choose understand and use appropriate methods for
> analysing their data.  Stata would be used.
> Please visit www.rss.org.uk/courses <www.rss.org.uk/courses>  to register
> or to obtain further details of courses available by the RSS Professional
> Development Centre.
> We look forward to receiving your registrations.
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Ali Houghton
> RSS Training Co-ordinator
> 
> RSS Professional Development Centre
> Tel: +44 (0)1625 504067  Fax: +44 (0)1625 267879 
> 
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