Training materials used in the Citizen Science Program
The governance document is used to provide an overview of the program for applicants and the syllabus is for the 2025/2026 training period
Learning Objectives for this topic:
- Understand Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) and Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER)
- Understand why research matters and how it impacts everyone
- Understand the difference between observational and interventional research and what types of questions are best addressed through each approach
- Be able to identify the components of a research manuscript
- Start to actively read and critique research article
Why Research Matters: What is Patient-Centered Comparative Effectiveness Research -> Goal of the mini-lecture was to provide an introduction to CER and the different approaches people take to this type of research
Developing Research Questions -> Goal of the mini-lecture was to introduce how to think about going from a research idea, to a question, to a testable research hypothesis
How to Read a Research Paper -> Goal of the mini-lecture is to provide suggestions on how to tackle reading a peer-reviewed research paper
Learning objectives for this topic:
- Understand the ethics and legal requirements of research that involves human participants
Be able to recognize when research involving human participants fall short of the highest ethical or legal standards - Understand the roles of institutional review boards (IRBs) in approving and monitoring research that involves human participants
- Be able to identify the components of a study protocol
- Know the key components of informed consent
- Be able to assess and provide feedback on the patient-centeredness of the informed consent process and key study documents
Research Ethics and Patient-Centered Informed Consent Forms, Protocols and an overview of study documents in IRB approved studies -> Goal of the mini-lecture was connect the CITI Human Subjects Training to study documents that Citizen Scientists may be asked to review in advisory roles and for our Citizen Scientists to participate in a related group activity
Learning objectives for this topic:
- Recognize the different types of observational studies
- Be able to articulate the advantages and limitations of different types of observational studies
- Be able to articulate the advantages and disadvantages of surveys, interviews and focus groups for collecting data
- Be able to assess the quality of observational studies
The Different Types of Observational Comparative Effectiveness Research -> The goal of this mini-lecture was to cover the pros and cons of using different sources of data for CER and the risks associated with different data sources
Learning objectives for this topic:
- Be able to identify the key components (PICOT, Patient/Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Time) of a clinical trial
- Be able to evaluate and improve the patient-centricity of each of the PICOT components of a clinical trial
Clinical Trials and Protocol Review -> The goal of this mini-lecture was to cover key sections of a study protocol and the role of Citizen Scientists in reviewing study protocols.
This training component also included a group activity where before the meeting Citizen Scientists reviewed a real study protocol and while reviewing were asked to complete a worksheet that included a PICOT table.
Learning objectives for this topic:
- Understand basic visualizations used to summarize the results of both observational studies and clinical trials
- Be able to select an appropriate graph to capture data based on the question being addressed
Data Visualizations Training -> Goal of the mini-lecture was introduce why we present data as a visualization and some of the ways in which data visualizations can be manipulated to present a particular story and how to identify these problems.
For a case study we returned to a figure from a past journal club meeting that had generated a lot of discussion to apply what was covered in the mini-lecture and discuss how to improve the data visualization.
Coming soon