Residency Curriculum Course: Basic Research Methods for Understanding the Physical Therapy Literature

Course Description: Listen, Read, and Learn

This 3 ¾ hour audio-based PowerPoint presentation will serve as a comprehensive and user friendly introduction on “need to know” topics on research design and statistics. After viewing, clinicians will more fully understand the latest research in physical therapy. Dr. Coyle has an inviting tutorial style and breaks the material down into a very digestible and well-paced format. This work is not only for the novice research clinician but can serve as a useful tool for physical therapy students and also seasoned clinicians who need a refresher on research methods and statistics in order to full participate in evidence-based practice.

Course Objectives

• Be able to evaluate the hierarchy of levels of evidence when interpreting the strength of research findings in physical therapy.
• Understand the role of statistics and hypothesis testing in evaluating research findings.
• Understand the most common research designs used in studies in physical therapy
• Be able to distinguish between reliability and validity and their importance in interpreting research.
• Be able to differentiate between statistical tests of relationships and also tests of differences when interpreting the literature in physical therapy.
• Have an appreciation of the importance of common measures such as minimal clinically important difference, diagnostic testing and accuracy, and receiver operating characteristic curves.

Authors

• Peter Coyle, Gregory Hicks