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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Understanding Medical Research: Your Facebook Friend is Wrong by Yale University

4.9
stars
1,874 ratings

About the Course

How can you tell if the bold headlines seen on social media are truly touting the next big thing or if the article isn't worth the paper it's printed on? Understanding Medical Studies, will provide you with the tools and skills you need to critically interpret medical studies, and determine for yourself the difference between good and bad science. The course covers study-design, research methods, and statistical interpretation. It also delves into the dark side of medical research by covering fraud, biases, and common misinterpretations of data. Each lesson will highlight case-studies from real-world journal articles. By the end of this course, you'll have the tools you need to determine the trustworthiness of the scientific information you're reading and, of course, whether or not your Facebook friend is wrong. This course was made possible in part by the George M. O'Brien Kidney Center at Yale....

Top reviews

PB

Sep 27, 2021

I used to be in a statistics career field and use some of that knowledge for this course. I absolutely feel like it's easier to spot fraud and will help me have a critical eye for so many other areas!

DW

Sep 27, 2020

Well organized and informative content. Dr. Wilson was an engaging and knowledgeable faculty member; I look forward to enrolling in another course under his leadership.

Calvin E Woodland, EdD, PsyD

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51 - 75 of 637 Reviews for Understanding Medical Research: Your Facebook Friend is Wrong

By Dr S K

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Sep 13, 2020

Absolutely stunning course.... Felt it to be a bit lengthy. Needs patience. But wonderful

By Kristina J

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May 13, 2020

Definitely recommend to learn this topics!

By Meena M

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May 8, 2020

It is very to understand to. Mee tq to learn this subject

By Yasemin T

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Jan 10, 2022

I never go online to rate items, so this has to be very poor or very great. This was a top-notch course that I literally did for fun - I have no need for coursework, I am completely done with that portion of my life. What I appreciated about this course was the level of information that was presented - it was fairly advanced for the layperson yet made very approachable.

Dr. Wilson has a great enthusiasm for the subject matter (a GREAT enthusiasm) - and uses real-life research examples to populate his lectures. Personally, despite having had a statistics course over 20 years ago, I learned more here than I did in my college class - and these lectures are done in nice short "soundbites" so you do not get overwhelmed. The use of technology, yet not being beholden to it - and having a great stage presence in communicating makes the lectures enjoyable.

Additionally, while this course seems to be a couple/few years old, Dr. Wilson has taken the time to add up-to-date, relevant COVID information to the course as time has passed.

This is a bonus. Having been both on the student and teaching side of things, it amazes me to see teachers/professors/instructors who will never update their material (this is at all levels of schooling and even here on Coursera). On top of which they will use "peer review" in grading/teaching (which is beyond ridiculous and the ultimate in laziness); and around looking at other courses here on Coursera many have even dropped whatever help there was when those courses were first offered 6 years ago (I would stay away from those courses - those "peer review" assignments will kill your grades if you are going to take them for certificates - read through the syllabus and the reviews). NOTE TO COURSERA: PLEASE DO A FULL AUDIT OF YOUR COURSES (AND LOOK AT THE COURSE OFFERINGS AND REVIEWS, THE STUDENTS ARE LARGELY RIGHT) - IT MIGHT BE TIME FOR SOME OF THE PROFESSORS TO UPDATE THEIR MATERIAL OR HAVE IT REMOVED FROM THE COURSE LISTING.

None of that happens here. It is pretty straightforward (it might be why there are so many 4 and 5 star reviews, oh, plus it is just a good course). What you have in this course set up by Dr. WIlson and his staff: lectures for each week, after the lectures a medical paper to read, then a quiz based on the lectures/paper. There are forums and Professor and assistant are available for questions.

FYI - I did not even fully read the papers at the end, internet problems on my end, so I am getting out with a ~85% if I wanted the certificate. And that is not with trying very hard - as they say, you get out what you put in.

By Roxanne B C

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Jan 23, 2021

This course is amazing! I took this course to supplement my learnings in school as well as to help me do better at my job and I believe I learned much more than when I started. The professor is very engaging and the examples he uses - both real world and made up - are very easy to follow. He is able to explain things in lay terms which is very helpful - especially if you don't have a background in research - and inspiring because he makes me wanna be able to explain it in the same way to other people to help them understand. The quizzes are fair and the articles cited are all very interesting. I also enjoyed the COVID related content which are very relevant nowadays. I highly recommend this course if you want to know more about understanding medical research or if you wanna brush up on your research knowledge. I look forward to another course taught by Dr. Wilson!

By Olga B

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Jan 9, 2021

I like the course! It was deepen me into the basics of medical research and studies in a funny and hilarious way! I absolutely love Dr. Wilson's style of teaching (light, but informative). Also very good idea to interview real students, it made me to smile during learning. Some personal details from Dr. Wilson were good too as you get a chance to personally know your teacher better. Of course, after this course you won't be an expert in a medical research and statistics, but it can be a beginning of this. From the negative part of my review I can tell that now I would like to participate in further courses with Dr. Wilson (maybe, not that basic, but more deep with some math in them). But they are not available yet)). A big thank you to all the team of Yale University who made it possible to students from different countries to learn this course.

By Nadezhda R

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Nov 6, 2020

One of the best courses I have taken. It has lots of useful information for professionals in the field of health, for scientistis and for the general population. This is especially relevant in our times of informational era. Dr. Wilson is a great presenter, I would say, and I am very happy that now I am able to recognize the quality paper and interpret research. Moreover, this course is particularly useful for those who want to streghten their critial thinking skills. I would like to thank Dr. Perry Wilson for those wonderful presentations, lectures with Covid content, your interesting examples and your vibe. Each lecture was really pleasurable to watch. I have already recommended your course for my classmates and collegues. I wish more people were aware about the content you have discussed here. I wish you good luck!

By Lhane A L G J

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May 1, 2022

This course has allowed me to crossover from Educational Researches to Medical Researches. A crossover that is necessary for me as a Senior High School Teacher here in the Philippines. It is vital to my pedagogy and approach as I cater to all the different strands of said level of education. This has brought both riveting and enriching concepts and ideas that will further help me provide instructional materials and discussions that may directly translate to the future specialization field of my students. Thank you for granting me the chance to learn from this course, Coursera, and Yale University! I am beyond blessed and grateful for your generosity.

By BRANCH W

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Jun 28, 2020

I thought this course was very informative, well organized, and well presented. I definitely will use what I learned to help me sort through medical decisions. Your providing an explanation of the correct answers when a question was missed, both for in-lesson questions and module quizzes, was very helpful and clarified misunderstandings that I sometimes didn't even know I had. All this--and it was fun too! Just for consideration--I would have also enjoyed some supplementary readings that weren't necessarily research papers, but related to some of the issues raised in the course or ethical implications.

By Anna L

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Jul 25, 2020

Amazing course - great lectures and well-designed assignments allowing you to apply and test your new knowledge in the real world. Dr Wilson is a great presenter with a kindly attitude and a great sense of humour, which makes his course very engaging, even though there are loads of information in each lecture and some rather difficult concepts. I highly recommend this course not only to people who want to learn to read medical studies, but also to anyone interested in how the studies are actually done and published (there is much more in the course than its title suggests!).

By Tamas S

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Jan 15, 2021

Dear Dr METHODS MAN, you practice the mastery of education in such an entert[r]aining way!

Dear MEDICAL SCHOOLS of the world, please include this enlightening course in your curricula!

Dear FELLOW STUDENTS of this course, let's put on the research agenda to approximately quantify the improvement in global healthcare attributable the educational activities of F. Perry Wilson and other outstanding entert[r]ainers through preventing flawed research and clinical malpractice. This impact might as well compare to other, more celebrated achievements of medicine.

By Keith H

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Apr 9, 2021

I enjoyed this course with Professor Wilson. Each Module well ordered and relatively easy to understand. With a good mixture of reading and visual story board understanding. Professor Wilson nails the modules perfectly, indicating and explaining Inc Research jargon and dialogue in lecture theatre atmosphere. Graphs and diagrams help explain Research language together with an intuitive series of lessons well structured and organized to allow you an excellent way of learning. Thankyou. Prof. Wilson

By Julie T

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Oct 26, 2020

The concepts were all presented in very tangible and simple language, with plenty of real-life examples to further support the explanations and concepts. There was a bit of dad-humour in there to easily lighten things up, but not too much to detract from the content. I would strongly recommend this course to anyone with or without a medical background and who is interested in medical science and might be wondering how to make sense of the ever-increasing stacks of new articles and new studies.

By Marie A C P

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Jun 5, 2020

I'd recommend this to anyone who's a bit afraid of numbers but really wants to make an effort in separating "chaff from the grain", and contribute to more level-headed discussion. Especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues and we're seeing so much research coming out, we need to be more skeptic and curious. It helps if you have a little background in statistics from college days, but even if you don't or can't remember, F. Perry Wilson does a comprehensive job of presenting the concepts.

By James B

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May 18, 2021

This course is a great introduction to those who want to get a basic understanding of the different types of medical studies there are and how to better interpret them. Dr Wilson and his team make the lectures easy to watch and learn from. The self-paced course gives you the time you need to learn the concepts presented and pause, "rewind", and review lectures if you need to. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking to get a better understanding of all the medical literature.

By Royce A

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Jan 3, 2021

It was a enjoyable course that helped increase the way I think about medical reports. Previously if I looked to any studies that showed that they found a drug that cure cancer but in mice I used to thing it could easily perform the same function in humans. Now I look to the studies with a healthy amount of skepticism. This is just one example I'd like to give though there are many others.

All in all I am glad I took this course and I recommend anybody reading this review to take it

By Nancy B

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Jun 15, 2020

This course was a gem. The information was presented in a clear fashion. The graphics were easy to understand and supported my learning. The examples were always instructive. I appreciated the humorous examples. They helped me to stay focused and to comprehend the material.

One suggestion would be to include a document with definitions of terms. That would be helpful to me to reinforce lessons and would be helpful so that I could return to that during the next lessons.

Thank you!

By Dr. S S M

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Aug 30, 2021

A thoroughly enjoyable and highly informative course. Dr. Wilson has a delightful sense of humor that helped hold my interest, despite my having a minor dread of most of the content of the course (namely biostatistics). He explained very complex and confusing statistical principles in a simple, clear and understandable manner. I thank Dr. Wilson and Coursera for this wonderful content. It was very well made and will serve me well as a clinical research professional.

By Connie O

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Jun 28, 2020

Interesting, entertaining, and informative. Great professor and just the right amount of information to educate on the subject without getting into the concepts we will never use in our daily lives. I'd absolutely take another course with Dr. Wilson and I'm looking forward to using my new knowledge in interpreting medical research studies and enjoying the confidence I have when discussing certain research studies with others. Thank you for a great course!

By Pham Q T

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Mar 11, 2022

I was trying to find some course to learn about EBM and how to apply it to clinical reality, then I found this course. There were many new things to me at the beginning, but I was really interested in Dr Wilson's lectures at the end of this course. Those lectures are organized in the simplest and most direct way so that someone who learn to practice EBM could learn it with joyness and understand practical issues thoroughly

Thank you very much, Dr Wilson.

By Alison B

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Dec 8, 2020

The course title intrigued me and made it feel more accessible and 'not' overwhelming. Though it was confusing at times, Dr. Wilson is good at simplifying the concepts, providing examples, and reiterating key points. I am not a part of the medical community but the skills learned in this course are certainly transferable - reading and interpreting medical studies (e.g. COVID-19 related research) and beyond. Definitely worth the time and effort.

By Farooq A R

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Jun 26, 2020

An excellent and highly recommended course that will act as a primer on critical appraisal of literature and basic biostatistics. I strongly recommend this course to all health care professionals and even by general public who want to understand the real meaning of published medical studies instead of blindingly following the Newspaper headlines. The presenter was very knowledgable and was very enthusiastic in delivering the course content.

By Harj a M H

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Mar 29, 2021

This course has been a gift during some tough days of otherwise covid-induced lifestyle limitations! It is challenging and very practical. It's been especially satisfying for me as I have recently retired from 45 years of nursing and have been missing a learning environment. Huge thanks to Dr Wilson for his engaging teaching style, rich with many examples and studies. Thankyou also to his team. I would highly recommend this course!!

By Mars F

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Jun 14, 2020

Very worthwhile course - not always easy to understand but worth your time and effort if you want to have a better understanding of medical studies. In this particular time when we are in the midst of a Pandemic it certainly doesn't hurt to be able to do your own due diligent in reading medical studies, Particularly as they pertain to the contra virus as well as any other medical subject matter you may be interested in reading.

By Quoc B N

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Aug 16, 2020

This course has really walked me through many important concepts systematically! Although I already have some basic statistic knowledge at the beginning, Dr. Perry Wilson has explained scientific terms in a very understandable, but more simple, way, which I found it's extremely interesting to go to the end of this course. I hope that you and your team will work on deeper courses for this series in the future!

Grazie!