PASS

Programs in Advanced Statistical Studies

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Biostatistics - Controlled Trials PASS

This certificate program is aimed at those who need to understand the statistical design principles for randomized clinical trials, and/or analyze, interpret or report the results from these trials. It offers the equivalent of 21 credits (in the US academic system).

This program provides an appropriate balance between conceptual understanding and application. As a successful PASS candidate, you will acquire the statistical skills and software facility you need for projects, reports, and research. While open to all, the flexible format and scheduling is particularly suitable for working professionals.

The program courses are taught by leading experts with whom you share a private discussion forum for the entire course period. Students participate from all over the world - lessons and assignments are opened and closed on a weekly basis. You organize your time however you like within each week - there are no set times when you must be online.

Courses in the Program are typically 4 weeks long, and require about 15 hours per week. Courses operate throughout the year, and there is no "semester" system. You can enter and start taking courses whenever you like, after reviewing the Program requirements and guidance on course sequencing. Most students take one course at a time, and complete their Program over a period of 3-5 years.

There are four main components to each course:

  1. Course materials (course text, course files, video and other materials)
  2. Discussion with the instructor and other students via daily web forum (asynchronous - you need not be online at any particular time of day)
  3. Homework (submitted online weekly, with individualized feedback the following week)
  4. Final project/exam

For more details on how these online courses work, click here.  Students successfully completing the Program receive a certificate and transcript.

Placement Services

As a PASS candidate, once you successfully complete half your program courses, you are eligible for our personalized placement services. We will review your background, your interests, and your work at the Institute, and try to find a match with appropriate recruiters. Our specialty is early-to-mid-career placement (not entry level).

When To Apply

Applications are accepted and students are enrolled year round on a rolling basis.  You pay an application fee and submit it with your application form.  You may pay the fee online here, or enclose a check (USD drawn on a US bank) with your application. NOTE: The application is your opportunity to specifically outline your past education and experience, and provide any other information you want us to consider during our review.  The value of this background and experience is the ability to place the statistical methods covered in the Program in an appropriate application context.  Once we have accepted your application, we will be happy to assist you with more specific questions about PASS.

Admission Criteria

  1. A Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university,
  2. Successful completion of an introductory statistics course equivalent to Statistics.com's Intro courses series ("Introduction to Statistics for Beginners" through "Introduction to Statistics 3") that prepares the applicant for a passing score in the required entrance exam which covers basic statistics.
  3. Passing score on the online entrance exam.

Note:  While it is not an admission requirement, applicants will also benefit from employment experience (or plans for employment) in an organization that works in the selected field of the Program you select.

Enrollment In PASS

Enroll in the Program of your choice here,  after your application is approved AND you have passed the entrance examination.  Once enrolled, register for each specific course within your PASS using the academic tuition rate as you are now a matriculated student at the Institute for Statistics Education at Statistics.com.

Note: While it is not an admission requirement, applicants will also benefit from employment experience (or plans for employment) in an organization that works with clinical trial deisgns or the results from clinical trials. The value of this experience is the ability to place the statistical methods covered in the Program in an appropriate application context (work experience with particular statistical techniques is not required).

Application Fee: $75
Program Registration Fee:$495
Estimated Required Course Tuition: $4788
Estimated Electives Course Tuition: $807
Estimated Material Cost: $980
Estimated Total Cost: $7145

Biostatistics - Controlled Trials PASS

 

Program Objectives

The program consists of courses offered completely online at statistics.com, from any computer connected to the internet.  Required topics for all students include regression, logistic regression, and survival analysis.  All students also take a series of special topics courses presenting specific and current topics in clinical trials (pharmacokinetics, bioequivalence, safety and data monitoring, adaptive designs). Electives allow for study of bayesian methods, survival analysis, meta analysis, and more.

Sequencing your Program

Most courses are four weeks long, and are scheduled either once or twice a year. Courses start on specific dates, but do not require you to be online at any particular time of the day. Since various courses are available throughout the year, the Program provides flexibility in scheduling.

Listed below in alphabetical order, are the required and elective courses with available dates. Additionally, use these tools to help you map out your program:

  • Prerequisites – each course lists its prerequisite. These prerequisite courses should be taken prior to the course you are considering.
  • Suggested sequencing document - this lists the courses in groups, based upon their approximate level of difficulty. It is a guide, not a set of requirements.
  • Calendar - You can easily search course start dates here.

After your successful acceptance into PASS, you can begin your program with any course, based on your own background, the level of difficulty and if you meet the prerequisites.  You will work out a tentative schedule (or at least the first few courses), then register and pay tuition.

As a PASS candidate, you are eligible to register for any course using the academic tuition link, indicating “PASS” when prompted for your academic affiliation during online registration.  As an added benefit, if you register online for three courses simultaneously, an automatic USD200 reduction is applied. Please note that payment of tuition and fees does not include the purchase of any required texts or software.

Suggested sequencing document

Calendar


Required Courses (12)

  • Adaptive Designs for Clinical Trials

    This course will teach you how to design, monitor and analyze clinical trials using statistically sound principles that incorporate interim looks at the data, possible early stopping, and sample size re-estimation at interim. It covers group sequential designs, adaptive dose finding (escalation) designs, and two-stage (e.g., phase I/II) adaptive designs. In addition, the impact of protocol amendments on clinical outcomes will also be studied.

    Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: March 23, 2012 to April 20, 2012 more >>
  • Biostatistics 1

    This course covers the principal statistical concepts used in medical and health sciences. Basic concepts common to all statistical analysis are reviewed, and those concepts with specific importance in medicine and health are covered in detail.

    Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: August 10, 2012 to September 07, 2012 more >>
  • Biostatistics 2 This course covers clinical trial designs including randomized controlled trials, ROC curves, CI and tests for relative risk and odds ratio, and an introduction to survival analysis. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: March 09, 2012 to April 06, 2012September 14, 2012 to October 12, 2012 more >>
  • Categorical Data Analysis This course will cover the analysis of contingency table data (tabular data in which the cell entries represent counts of subjects or items falling into certain categories). Topics include tests for independence (comparing proportions as well as chi-square), exact methods, and treatment of ordered data. Both 2-way and 3-way tables are covered. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: March 30, 2012 to April 27, 2012September 28, 2012 to October 26, 2012 more >>
  • Clinical Trials - Phamacokinetics and Bioequivalence This course covers the statistical measurement and analysis methods relevant to the study of pharmacokinetics (the absorption, distribution and secretion of drugs), dose-response modeling, and bioequivalence.  It provides practical work with actual/simulated clinical trial data. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: July 27, 2012 to August 24, 2012 more >>
  • Introduction to Statistical Issues in Clinical Trials This course covers the basic statistical principles in the design and analysis of randomized controlled trials. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: June 22, 2012 to July 20, 2012 more >>
  • Logistic Regression Logistic regression extends ordinary least squares (OLS) methods to model data with binary (yes/no, success/failure) outcomes. Rather than directly estimating the value of the outcome, logistic regression allows you to estimate the probability of a success or failure. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: March 16, 2012 to April 13, 2012June 15, 2012 to July 13, 2012September 07, 2012 to October 05, 2012 more >>
  • Matrix Algebra Review This course will provide the basics of vector and matrix algebra and operations necessary to understand multivariate statistical methods, including the notions of the matrix inverse, generalized inverse and eigenvalues and eigenvectors. After successfully completing this course, you will be able to use and understand vector and matrix operations and equations, find and use a matrix inverse, and use and understand the eigenset of a symmetric matrix. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: February 24, 2012 to March 23, 2012June 29, 2012 to July 27, 2012November 02, 2012 to November 30, 2012 more >>
  • Regression Analysis In this course you will learn how multiple linear regression models are derived, use software to implement them, learn what assumptions underlie the models, learn how to test whether your data meet those assumptions and what can be done when those assumptions are not met, and develop strategies for building and understanding useful models. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: March 30, 2012 to April 27, 2012September 28, 2012 to October 26, 2012 more >>
  • Safety Monitoring Committees in Clinical Trials This course covers the statistical display and analysis methods used in monitoring clinical trials for safety, as well as the biases and pitfalls inherent in safety review. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: October 26, 2012 to November 23, 2012 more >>
  • Sample Size and Power Determination This course shows you how to make sample size determinations for various statistical tests and for confidence intervals, as needed for experimental studies such as comparison studies, as well as for other types of experiments. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: May 18, 2012 to June 15, 2012November 23, 2012 to December 28, 2012 more >>
  • Survival Analysis The course describes the various methods used for modeling and evaluating survival data, or time-to event data. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: March 23, 2012 to April 20, 2012September 21, 2012 to October 19, 2012 more >>

Elective Courses (2 required)

  • Advanced Logistic Regression After taking this course, participants will be able to specify, implement and interpret the output of a variety of advanced logistic regression models not covered in the first course, "Logistic Regression." Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: April 27, 2012 to May 25, 2012April 26, 2013 to May 24, 2013 more >>
  • Advanced Survival Analysis This course focuses on the extension of the Cox proportional hazards model to (a) recurrent event survival analysis and (b) competing risks survival analysis. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: May 18, 2012 to June 15, 2012November 09, 2012 to December 07, 2012 more >>
  • Analysis and Sensitivity Analysis for Missing Data This course extends the study of missing data analysis that was introduced in "Missing Data", and covers the situation when data are not missing at random. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: To be scheduled. more >>
  • Avoiding Selection Bias in Randomized Clinical Trials This course covers the essential concepts required to design rigorous randomized trials so as to ensure valid treatment comparisons. Tuition: $399 (6.25 CEUs) New available dates: September 14, 2012 to October 19, 2012 more >>
  • Biostatistics in R: Clinical Trial Applications This course covers the implementation in R of statistical procedures important for the clinical trial statistician. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: May 25, 2012 to June 22, 2012November 16, 2012 to December 14, 2012 more >>
  • Introduction to Bayesian Statistics This course will introduce you to the basic ideas of Bayesian Statistics. You will learn how to perform Bayesian analysis for a binomial proportion, a normal mean, the difference between normal means, the difference between proportions, and for a simple linear regression model. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: February 24, 2012 to March 23, 2012August 17, 2012 to September 14, 2012 more >>
  • Meta Analysis This course will explain meta analysis - the methods that are used to assess multiple statistical studies on the same subject and draw conclusions. Dr. Rothstein will be the primary discussion leader for this course. Tuition: $429 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: April 06, 2012 to May 04, 2012July 20, 2012 to August 17, 2012November 30, 2012 to January 04, 2013 more >>
  • Meta Analysis 2 Meta-Analysis refers to the statistical analyses that are used to synthesize summary data from a series of studies.  This course covers some advanced issues in meta-analysis.  Participants should have completed the basic course in meta-analysis or an equivalent. Tuition: $429 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: August 31, 2012 to September 28, 2012 more >>
  • Missing Data Analysis in Clinical Trials This course will cover the theory and practice of two modern methods of handling missing data in clinical trial applications: maximum likelihood and multiple imputation. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: To be scheduled. more >>
  • Modeling Count Data This course deals with regression models for count data; i.e. models with a response or dependent variable data in the form of a count or rate. The course will cover Poisson regression, the foundation for modeling counts, as well as extensions and modifications to the basic model. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: May 11, 2012 to June 08, 2012October 19, 2012 to November 16, 2012 more >>
  • Modeling Longitudinal and Panel Data This course covers the extension of Generalized Linear Models (GLM) to model varieties of longitudinal and clustered data, called panel data. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: July 20, 2012 to August 17, 2012July 19, 2013 to August 16, 2013 more >>
  • Survey Analysis This course covers the analysis of data gathered in surveys. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: August 17, 2012 to September 14, 2012 more >>
  • Survey Design and Sampling Procedures This course covers the crafting of survey questions, the design of surveys, and different sampling procedures that are used in practice. Longstanding basic principles of survey design are covered, and the impact of the trend toward increased respondent resistance is discussed. Tuition: $399 (5.0 CEUs) New available dates: July 13, 2012 to August 10, 2012 more >>

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