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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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676 - 700 of 708 Reviews for Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials

By Kamesh G

•

Oct 23, 2016

Great work! Thank you.

By Ernesto G G

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Nov 21, 2021

Very Good, Than You!

By Suha A

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Aug 29, 2021

Nice ,clear course

By Sumit S

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Dec 20, 2017

Excellent course.

By Rahma m

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Dec 26, 2018

Excellent course

By FERNANDO C

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Sep 29, 2018

It was amagazin

By Qier W

•

Sep 19, 2020

Great teacher!

By SHIYONA N

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Aug 22, 2020

Usefull course

By Muhammed E M

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Aug 5, 2020

Good course !

By Xiaomin W

•

Dec 22, 2020

Very good!

By natalia r

•

Jan 19, 2020

Very good!

By ALFREDO H

•

Oct 28, 2019

excelente

By AHMED F

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Jun 26, 2022

Od ne

By Adeola A

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Jan 5, 2017

great

By barah k a

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Mar 10, 2017

good

By Soujanya K

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Jul 14, 2022

O

By Yelyzaveta P

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Aug 16, 2023

'sufficient but not above average'

The course is reasonably good for gaining an idea of the basic classification of clinical trials. I think I still would recommend it, but I have a strong impression it could be better. Its main emphasis is on the theoretical overview of what kinds of trials exist and what regulations the design should follow. But it lacks the practical aspect. After the course, I understand that there are e.g. adaptive designs, and understand why this kind of design is useful, but unfortunately, I have almost no idea of how to approach the creation of such a design. The example here would be crucial for making a step from pure theory on a classification to practical 'know-how'.

On this side, I liked the last lesson very much. The practical comparison on particular observational study VS the randomized clinical trial gave me a very deep understanding on how to think about the possible inconsistancy between the results of different trials. I only wish there would be more of such practical lessons accompanying the course.

The weakest point of the course are the qiuzes. I did not need to know the content of the lecture to answer the majority of the questions, as they all rely on common sense only. Some test question that would make us think at least a little it would spare me from regretting that I inversted money in the course. I mean, I definitely have lernt something, but I feel there could be more efforts in the intention to teach and to know whether the student really is capable of doing at least something small by himself was something I was expecting and unfortunately did not receive.

This is not my first coursera course, so I have something to compare with.

On the other hand, I understand that these lessons 'just read the regulations' had to be there and it's hard to make them somehow more engaging.

By Musleh F

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May 9, 2023

Good information but in my opinion, it's a course that needs a shakeup in terms of its video production. No one wants to watch or listen to someone repeating bullet points on slides over and over again. Please release the slides for students to self-study if this is the teaching approach you'd like to use. Otherwise, the only way videos help is if they are more interactive and engaging i.e. with a little bit of storytelling 🙂

By Konstantinos P

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Jun 9, 2022

A lot of useful information is included, however the presentation of this information and the examples given are not practical enough. I would personally prefer e.g.including repeating a standardized approach to evaluating research papers/ designing virtual examples of clinical trials multiple times, to get a more practical sense of how this information is applied, as well as building useful habits.

By colleen m

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Jun 26, 2022

The course was interesting and informative but, the discussion was lacking. There were several discussion forums where I was hoping for a comment from an instructor to clarify and discuss the answers but, I was not able to find where the instructors had engaged at all. It was kind of disappointing and left me feeling like my understanding of the subject was being left incomplete.

By Marcus C

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Jul 16, 2017

Was alright, but felt a bit short of content. Some more interactive assignments, questionnaires and examples would be nice.

By Robert W

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Aug 27, 2019

for me personally the level was to basic. Having said that, it gives a good overview on clinical trial designs.

By Bruna d A P

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Mar 26, 2020

The content was very well prepared, but i think most of the Topics can not be applie

By Marilia C

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Aug 31, 2017

Good course as an introduction of the topic.

By Xin W

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Jan 3, 2017

presentation is poor, not very engaging