LEARNING ABOUT CLINICAL RESEARCH

Just like clinical work, conducting clinical research requires a specialized set of skills. Clinical research refers to research intended to produce knowledge for understanding, preventing and treating illness and promoting health.

• To learn more about the broad scope and state of clinical research in the U.S., you can read a free online chapter about clinical research from a 2005 publication “Advancing the Nation's Health Needs: NIH Research Training Programs” at http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11275&page=51. Be sure to check out other chapters in this book to give you an important perspective on the state of clinical research and training in the U.S. in the 21st century.
• To learn the basics of Clinical Trials, check out Wikipedia’s entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_trial
• The Veteran’s Administration has an excellent website of seminars on various topics applicable to clinical research – to check these out go to http://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/for_researchers/cyber_seminars/catalog.cfm.
• For a series of online learning materials about various aspects of research, go to ERIC http://www2.sph.unc.edu/courses/eric/eric_notebooks.htm.
• For a series of online lectures from the University of Washington covering a variety of topics that include some presentations of statistical analysis, go to http://www.uwtv.org/programs/epidemiology.asp.