Introduction to Biostatistics provides an introduction to selected important topics in biostatistical concepts and reasoning. This course represents an introduction to the field and provides a survey of data and data types. Specific topics include tools for describing central tendency and variability in data; methods for performing inference on population means and proportions via sample data; statistical hypothesis testing and its application to group comparisons.
This course develops and uses statistical methods appropriate for analyzing right-censored (i.e., incomplete) time-to-event data. Topics covered include nonparametric estimation (e.g., life table methods, Kaplan Meier estimator), nonparametric methods for comparing the survival experience of two or more populations, and semiparametric and parametric methods of regression for censored outcome data. Substantial use is made of the R, STATA and SPSS statistical software packages.
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the use of modern statistical packages for analyzing various types of data commonly encountered in many areas of science. Students with limited computer experience will be introduced to some widely used statistical packages such as Excel, SPSS and R, a free version of S -PLUS. They will learn how to use these packages for analyzing various types of real life data. Mathematica will be introduced for symbolic computing.