Short Courses on Research Essentials

[For] research to be meaningful, its methodologic foundation must be scientifically sound and patient centered … [and] all stakeholders should be able to gauge the research’s quality and usefulness … [If] medical research is to realize the promise of improving health, the methods matter. Gabriel and Normand, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

Why Methodological Literacy

Is Vital Today
In our rapidly changing health care system, research is assuming increasing importance as a part of policy dialogue and clinical decision making. Terms like “evidence-based” and “scientifically valid” are commonly used in “white papers,” treatment guidelines, and even political discourse. But for those of us who use research findings—or those who are asked to take action based on “scientific evidence”—how can we distinguish high-quality from low-quality information? We all need to be able to make these distinctions, no matter what our roles are in the health care system. For health care decision makers, knowing which studies to trust requires a good working knowledge of health care research methods. And for health care researchers, producing valid and reliable evidence in a reasonable period of time requires knowledge of “tricks of the trade” that facilitate both excellence and efficiency. Practical, down-to-earth guidance is needed.

Short Courses Offered by Kathleen Fairman

Sound, personalized teaching and advice from an award-winning investigator, former journal editor, and highly rated textbook author is available. In customized half-or full-day classes, Dr. Kathleen Fairman, former Associate Editor and Senior Methodology Reviewer of the Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy and author of Health Care Research Done Right, shares valuable insights about what research excellence is and how to achieve it. Course participants learn the basics of research design and reporting—along with any other methodological topics desired—in a relaxed, pragmatic, and easily comprehended format. Most importantly, thanks to Fairman’s hallmark use of entertaining examples to teach, they will learn that good research methodology can be both practical and fun.

Available Course Modules

· Signs of a high-quality research report
· Fundamentals of research design
· Project planning made easier
· Sensible statistical analysis
· Using health care claims data wisely
· Constructing and administering a survey of patients and/or health care professionals
· Addressing peer reviewer feedback appropriately
· Effective communication of research results
· “Master class” review of your current research projects 

Whatever you need—just ask!

What Your Colleagues Are Saying about Kathleen Fairman

Fairman is able to take an otherwise dry topic and, through the use of highly relevant examples and anecdotes, make the subject of health care research interesting and entertaining. (Managed care researcher)

Fairman understands how to make information sing. And she’ll teach you how to design, analyze, and report your research so it gets published. She includes excellent advice on how to plan research well, conduct literature reviews that pass muster, and how to respond to reviewer critiques. She provides insider knowledge, derived from her time as a Journal Editor, about common mathematical errors in analysis, multivariate analysis landmines, and secondary data problems and solutions. . . . Fairman should take this book and its contents on the road and share it in presentations with pharma. We’d all learn a thing or two. (Healtheconomics.com) 

Want to learn more? Visit our website or contact Kathleen directly: kathleen@kathleenfairman.com.