Training in Trials Methodology Research

The Hubs offer various courses and studentships in many aspects of trials methodology. In addition, the HTMR Network has identified training courses relevant to clinical trials methodology that are offered in the UK and Ireland.

This list is not comprehensive, so please contact the Network if you would like to add a course relevant to clinical trials methodology research (enquiries@methodologyhubs.mrc.ac.uk). Please note that we do not endorse any particular training courses.

In compiling this list, we have focused on training activities that are mainly or exclusively about clinical trials. We identified many other courses that might also be useful to people involved in clinical trials (for example, on time management, statistical or economic analysis, and qualitative research methodology) but these are not included, in order to keep this list and its updating manageable. Although systematic reviews are a key component in the planning and interpretation of clinical trials, we have not listed courses where the main focus is on systematic reviews for the same reasons. However, courses would be included if the topics covered relate specifically to the use of systematic reviews in the design, conduct, analysis or interpretation of a clinical trial with which the participant is, or will be, involved.

Title	Frequency	Brief description	Institution	Details
Professional development courses- various themes	Regular intervals throughout the year	The MPS Research Unit courses are aimed at statisticians working in clinical research. Courses take place at Lancaster University and include: Pharmacological Modelling February Survival and Event History Analysis Adaptive and Bayesian Methods in Clinical Research Genomics: Technologies and Data Analyses Designing Early Phase Trials	Lancaster University	HERE
Practical methods for analysing ordinal outcome data in clinical trials	various	A two-day workshop providing detailed, practical training in ordinal methods for outcome data to researchers.	University of Edinburgh	HERE
MRC Biostatistics Unit- various courses	various	Statistics courses for trialists. Courses include Bayesian statistics and winBUGS	University of Cambridge	HERE
MRC Conduct Hub- various courses	various including: Questionnaire Design, Application and Data Interpretation 15 - 17 April 2013 Systematic Reviews In Health Care: Meta-Analysis in Context 10 - 12 June 2013 Advanced Meta-Analysis 13 - 14 June 2013 Qualitative Research in Randomised Trials 18 June 2013 Advanced Epidemiological and Statistical Methods 24 - 28 June 2013	The School of Social and Community Medicine provides a programme of high quality intensive short courses covering a range of health services research and epidemiological methods, as well as generic research skills. They are aimed at academics, public health specialists, health-care professionals and industry. Courses range in duration from one to five days. These courses are designed and taught by members of the school with some invited speakers from the UK and abroad.	University of Bristol	HERE
Introduction to research governance	annually- February	A two-day course covering all aspects of research governance for clinical trials	University of Bristol	HERE
Clinical trials	various	A one-day course covering basic concepts in the design, ethics, conduct, analysis and publication of randomized trials, including practical exercises and examples.	University of Cambridge	HERE
Design and analysis of randomised trials	annually- November	A five-day course covering key issues in the design, analysis and reporting of clinical trials. The course focuses on randomised trials in the evaluation of healthcare technologies.	University of Bristol	HERE
Edinburgh clinical trial management course	annually- November	A two-day course covering management of randomised trials.	University of Edinburgh	HERE
Randomised trials	16-20 April	A five-day course covering practicalities of organising and running a trial.	University of Oxford	HERE
Randomised controlled Trials: a guide to design, conduct, analysis and interpretation and reporting	annually	A five-day course providing a detailed overview, including design, ethics, sample size, conduct, publication of randomised trials.	Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Oxford	HERE
Bayesian adaptive designs course	30-31 May 2013	A two-day course providing an introduction to Bayesian adaptive designs used in phase I to phase III clinical trials.	MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge	HERE
Missing data	March 2013	A two-day course to provide practical skills to handle missing data, and to move beyond the use of complete-case analysis and last observation carried forward analysis. The course focuses on trials with quantitative outcomes, and also considers binary outcomes but not time-to-event outcomes.	MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge	HERE
Statistical Methods for Ordered Categorical Data		A two-day course covering the design and analysis of studies in which the primary response is ordered categorical data. Methods for the analysis of repeated ordinal data based on the marginal model and on the subject-specific model are presented and compared.	University of Lancaster	HERE
Centre for Applied Medical Statistics- various courses	various	A unique interactive learning approach, incorporating rich media and a dynamic online classroom, enables you to engage fully with a range of important subject areas. Modules cover the ethical, legal and regulatory considerations that affect clinical trials, the essentials of Good Clinical Practice, the design and conduct of the clinical protocol, biostatistics, data management, product development and health economics.	University of Cambridge	HERE
ORBIT (Outcome Reporting Bias in Trials)		A one-day workshop to provide the review author with a background to the problem of outcome reporting bias (ORB) and how it might lead to misleading conclusions, to demonstrate how a review author might identify such bias in their review, and to present techniques for assessing the robustness of the meta-analysis to such bias.	University of Liverpool	HERE
COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials)	various	Events meetings and workshops covering development and consensus on core outcome measures.	University of Liverpool	HERE
The Cochrane Collaboration	various	Variety of workshops relevant to clinical trials (but most of the workshops are focused on systematic reviews)	UK Cochrane Centre	HERE
MSc in clinical research	on-going- online course	The online MSc in Clinical Research is designed for professionals working in health-related disciplines who wish to begin or enrich a career in clinical research. Modules cover the ethical, legal and regulatory considerations that affect clinical trials, from the essentials of Good Clinical Practice (GCP), to the design and conduct of clinical protocol, biostatistics, data management, product development and health economics.	University of Liverpool / Laureate Online Education	HERE
Research Quality Association www.therqa.com (formerly: www.barqa.com)	on-going	The Research Quality Association offers distance learning on GCP, UK clinical trials regulation and good manufacturing practice for IMPs.	Research Quality Association	HERE
Joint modelling of longitudinal and event time data in clinical research (JoineR)	regular intervals throughout the year	(1) To provide the clinical research community with an awareness of potential problems in commonly occurring clinical and observational data, the inefficiency of simple approaches, the practical relevance of joint modelling, and the availability of joint modelling methods in freely available, documented software. (2) To improve current practice in the analysis of the complex longitudinal data structures that commonly arise in clinical and public health research.	University of Liverpool	HERE