Course Coordinator: Professor Simon Koblar

Course Coordinators

1. Prof Simon Koblar
Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
Adelaide Medical School
University of Adelaide
email: simon.koblar@adelaide.edu.au

2. Prof Andrea Yool
Professor of Physiology
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
University of Adelaide
email: andrea.yool@adelaide.edu.au

Lectures for this course are delivered as part of the integrated Year 3 MBBS Program.

Students will need to work in small groups outside the scheduled program to meet the course requirements.

1. To understand the role of research to inform excellence in clinical practice
2. Learn the principles, practices and processes of scientific enquiry
3. Plan a small research project involving experimental design or qualitative research methodologies where relevant.
4. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of a published paper, and its relevance to clinical pratice or medical science.
5. Learn how to keep up-to-date with research.
6. Carry out independent learning and work effectively

There are no required resources for this course.

Research Design Resources
Bordage, G & Dawson, B 2003, “Experimental study design and grant writing in eight  steps and 28 questions’, Medical Education, vol. 37, p. 376-385.
Grimes DA & Schulz KF, 2002, “An overview of clinical research: the lay of the land.” The Lancet, vol.359, issue 9300, p. 8.
Hansen, E 2006, Successful qualitative health research: a practical introduction, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest.Moher,
D, Schulz, KF, Altman, DG 2001, ‘The CONSORT statement: revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel group randomised trials. BMC Medical Research Methodology, vol. 1, p. 2
Riegelman, RK 2000, Studying a study and testing a test, 4th edn. Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia PA.
Rossenfeldt, FL, Dowling, JT, Pepe, S & Fulleton, M 2000, ‘How to write a paper for publication’, Heart Lung and Circulation, vol. 9, p. 82-87.

Critical Appraisal resources
Introductory paper: “How to critically appraise an article” by Young and Solomonhttp://www.nature.com/nrgastro/journal/v6/n2/pdf/ncpgasthep1331.pdf
Sitewith checklist style worksheets for the critical appraisal of different types of research
http://www.casp-uk.net/find-appraise-act/appraising-the-evidence/
Elwood, M 2000, Critical appraisal of epidemiological studies and clinical trials, OUP, Oxford, New York.
Greenhalgh, T 2010, How to Read a Paper: The Basics of Evidence-Based Medicine. Wiley BlackwellPublishing, Oxford.Research

Ethics
Emanuel,EJ, Wendler, D & Grady C 2000, ‘What makes clinical research ethical?’, Journal of the American Medical Association, vol 283, p. 2701-2711.Overview:  www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-ethics
Ethical issues checklist for human research:https://webdev.adelaide.edu.au/ethics/human/guidelines/levels/HREC_Ethics_Checklist.doc
Ethical requirements in animal, genetic and human research: www.adelaide.edu.au/ethics/
Indigenous health: www.nhmrc.gov.au/your-health/indigenous-health
Regulations on the procurement and use of human tissue/ cadavers:www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/Transplantation%20and%20Anatomy%20Act%201983.aspxInformed consent, use of case notes, de-identification, confidentiality and privacy:www.privacy.gov.au/publications/e26.pdf
Examples of Research Ethics approval committees and their requirements:
www.adelaide.edu.au/ethics/human/guidelines/index.html
www.rah.sa.gov.au/rec/www.tqeh.sa.gov.au/public/content/default.asp?xcid=158Group

Work and Peer Assessment
Group Work: http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/quickrefs/24-groupwork.xml

PeerAssessment:   http://sydney.edu.au/business/learning/students/study_research_writing/groupwork/finishing_well/self_peer_assessment

Statistics Resources

Bland, M 2000, An introduction to medical statistics, 3rd edn, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Campbell, MJ & Machin, D 2000, Medical statistics: a commonsense approach, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Dawson-Saunders, B & Trapp, RG 1994, Basic and clinical biostatistics, Appleton & Lange, Norwalk.
Gore, SM & Altman, DG 1991, Statistics in practice, British Medical Association, London.
Petrie, A & Sabin, C 2009, Medical statistics at a glance, 3rd edn, Wiley-Blackwell, New Jersey.

Referencing Style
The University of Adelaide’s Harvard Referencing Style: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/referencing_guides/Endnote guide
The University of Adelaide library’s guide to Endnote:http://libguides.adelaide.edu.au/mbbs
How to export from PubMed into Endnote, especially see section on how to convert to full Journal titleshttp://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/guide/med/end.html

There are a range of online resources available in the recommended resources.

There are two main components of this course: The Research Proposal and  the Critical Appraisal.  Both activities have a strong focus on working collaboratively in teams.  Each component is supported by a series of lectures.

Research Proposal
Students work in small groups under the supervision of a Academic staff member or Clinical titleholder to produce a research proposal.  Students will form there own Research Proposal Groups (comprising 4 students) and approcah potential supervisors to coordinate their project.

Critical Appraisal
Students work in pairs to critically appraise a published research paper with respect to its rationale, methodology, interpretation of results, conclusions and contribution to medical knowledge or clinical practice.

Provided students work systematically through the two activities within their groups, the workload for this course is manageable.

The primary mode is small group learning for the development of the Research Proposal and the Critical appraisal.  Students will need to demonstrate the ability to self direct their learning with support, and time manage their projects.

Further details will be provide in the Course Handbook.

The course requires students to participate in small groups for both the research proposal and critical appraisal task.  These tasks cannot be completed individually.

Working in a small group with a supervisor on the Research Proposal meets the requirements of a small Group Discovery Experience

The final mark (out of 100) is based on assessments carried out over the full year (in Part 1 and Part 2).

SEMESTER 1
10     Core Skills online modules (5 at 2 marks each),
            Ethics, Scientific method, Finding information, Writing communication skills, and Oral communication skills.
 0      Formative assignment for Research Proposal
 0      Formative preparation for Critical Appraisal

SEMESTER 2
50      Final research proposal (written paper)
25      Critical appraisal (10 min oral presentation)
 5       Groupwork log
 7       Supervisor assessment (individual mark)
 3       Peer assessment (via Splat)

TOTAL
100

To pass this course and the Third Year MBBS Examination Annual Examination Part 2 course, students must obtain:

•    a satisfactory result in each of the components of the summative assessment in semesters 1 and 2; and
•    a satisfactory performance in the examinations overall

If an overall borderline grade is achieved in the examinations, a student may be offered an opportunity to sit a Replacement/Additional Assessment examination.

Academic Progression Requirements
Progression from one year to the next in the MBBS is dependent on the student successfully completing a compulsory annual examination course in which a full year’s learning is assessed.

To successfully complete the MEDIC ST 3000A and MEDIC ST 3000B Third Year MBBS Examination Part 1 and Part 2 courses, the student must pass the end of year examinations and have successfully completed all year level component courses (24 units).

IF a student fails the compulsory examination course no passing grade will be received for any core medical studies courses.

IF a student has not completed all required MEDIC ST units of the year they must successfully complete an appropriate remedial course of the same or greater value as specified in Term 4 of the same academic year.

A marking grid will be privided to all students which indicates how their final overall band will be determined.

The final individual band is based on their final proposal band, groupwork (satisfactory, borderline, unsatisfactory) and Supervision Attendance (group Work Logs).
Students attendance and contribution is an important element of the assessment.

Details of the assessment grids are provided within the course.

Complete assessment requirements for the MBBS Program and this Course  are set out in the year level assessment documents distributed at the start of each year.

Details of the submission requirements will be provided in the Course. 
Students may be required to submit the work through Turnitin.

For the purpose of feedback to students a banded result will be provided.  This result will not appear on students’ academic transcripts. Bands of achievement are:

A     Above expected competency for year level
B     Clearly at expected competency for year level
C     Just reaches expected competency for year level
D     Below expected competency for year level
E     Far below expected competency for year level.

Students should familarise themselves with the University Policy on Additional Assessment/Replacement Assessment.

The MBBS Program has a regular program of evaluation.  In addition, student representatives are appointed to MBBS committees and are encouraged to report on issues of importance to students.

Students may access the University Health Practice, 61+ 08 83135050 http://www.adelaide.edu.au/student/health/
The MBBS Program website has details on Student well-being resources which can be accessed.

Please read the MBBS Program Code of Conduct