94799 - Introduction to the Scientific Method in the Experimental Field

Learning outcomes

At the end of the 4 classes (8 hours) students will be

• able to recognize the architecture of scientific method and of the basic phiosophical issues arising with respect to science and method
• familiar with the basics of research planning and with knds of study designi in medical research
• aware of ethical questions about medical research

Course contents

Basic philosophical  and conceptual issues. What is science. Laws, systematicity, theories. Demarcation between science and non-science. Medicine as a science. The logical architecture of scientific method: observation, hypothesis, control. Kinds of scientific reasoning: deduction, induction, abduction.

Research in medicine. Kinds of research (basic, applied, qualitative and quantitative). The research problem, role of publication databases, kinds of experimental design, observational studies and the problem of correlation-causation, RCT and clinical trials, meta analyses, presentation of the hierarchy of evidence.

Research ethics. The role of ethical committees. Research with human subjects. Controversial cases. Objectivity in research: replicabiliy, intersubjectivity, the role of values.

Readings/Bibliography

Lalumera, E. (forthcoming) Medicina e metodo sperimentale. Questioni filosofiche. Esculapio, Bologna.

Slides of the courses are part of teaching material, too, as they give indications on which parts of the book you need to focus on with more attention.

 

Teaching methods

Traditional classes 

Assessment methods

A written test with 5 questions. 4 are multiple-choice questions. 1 is an exercise of recognition of the kind of experimentsl study from a scientific article.

This course is 1/3 of FONDAMENTI DELLA PRATICA CLINICA C.I.

Teaching tools

Ppt presentations. Links to published articles as examples.

Office hours

See the website of Elisabetta Lalumera