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Advanced Clinical Research

Code: 44210
Credits: 10
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Applied Clinical Research in Health Sciences OP 0

Contact lecturer

Name :
Gerard Urrutia Cuchi
Email :
gerard.urrutia@uab.cat

Teaching staff

Susan Webb Youdale
Ignacio José Gich Saladich
Xavier Bonfill Cosp
Ivan Sola Arnau
Helena Bascuñana Ambros
Nieves Sopena Galindo
Javier Bracchiglione Pérez

Teaching staff (external to UAB)

Gerard Álvarez Bustins
Olga Canet Vélez
Concepció Violan Fors
Gonzalo Casino Rubio
Vicenç Ruiz de Porras Fontdevila
Marta Roqué Figuls

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

Those specific to admission to the master's degree and understanding of written technical English.

Objectives

This module is considered as advanced training in research methodologies focused on fields related to health sciences, further exploring some specific aspects of special relevance that were taught superficially in the introductory module of basic methodology. Specifically, the module places special emphasis on some practical methodological tools (guidelines and instruments) for the development and conduct of clinical research studies as well as their practical application in specific studies by way of illustration. This master's degree is adapted to the educational and methodological proposals of the European Higher Education Area. The structure of this master's degree is adapted to that established in the Spanish Royal Decree 1393/2007, on official university education in Spain, and has a favourable verification report from the Spanish National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA).


It is addressed at university graduates of disciplines related to people’s health from different perspectives.


The objectives of the module are:

  • To provide adequate knowledge, skills and competences to plan, design and develop research studies and projects relevant in health, care and quality of life fields, both from a qualitative and a quantitative approach.
  • To acquire specialized skills to solve problems in research and innovation, with a view to developing new knowledge and integrating this in the field of health‑condition assistance; including the skills required to design research projects that could receive support and funding from funding agencies.
  • To provide the required knowledge and skills to disseminate research results through meetings, conferences and symposia, as well as by publishing them in scientific journals.
  • To address the main lines and methodologies of research and innovation in the fields of family and community healthcare, clinical nursing, community participation and action, quality of life in health processes, disease and health care, that allow to translate the results from research to the professional field.

Learning outcomes

  1. Working as part of a group along with other professionals, understand their views and cooperate constructively.
  2. Act respecting the ethical and legal aspects of research and professional activities.
  3. Develop scientific knowledge, critical thinking and creativity.
  4. Communicate and apply knowledge to the public and cultural debate.
  5. Distinguish the basic elements of analysis results and how to introduce them into the database and analyzed with the basic computer packages.
  6. Describe the most significant differences between qualitative and quantitative research.
  7. List the basic strategies of qualitative analysis.
  8. Formulated from an original reading of the research question and move to the statement of a working hypothesis article.
  9. Explain the relationship between the type of objectives, assumptions and research question in an original article.
  10. Identify a research question that is relevant and transferable to the care medicine.
  11. Develop a simple, direct and testable hypothesis.
  12. Design hypotheses and concrete targets of interest in various areas of Internal Medicine
  13. Identify and set out the main objectives and consistent with the hypothesis side and able to respond to the research question as well as raise new hypotheses.
  14. Build a hypothesis that reflects the final conclusion of the investigation and that action can be confirmed or rejected as a result of it.
  15. Identify sources of scientific information in nursing according to the type of knowledge that is explored.
  16. Develop a critical reading structured systematic reviews.
  17. Find information in the databases of health sciences for qualitative research.
  18. Describe the different levels of evidence and their characteristics.
  19. Identify the different bibliographic databases in health sciences.
  20. Collect scientific information and classify it according to levels of evidence and scientific relevance within the different areas of Internal Medicine.
  21. Know and use computer databases.
  22. Know and use the rules of the Evidence-Based Medicine to discriminate between reliable and robust sources (primary and secondary).
  23. Always refer to the critical reading of a job.
  24. Learn to select the relevant scientific sources for research in particular.
  25. Similar to the previous section, applied to the specific scope of the C of S.
  26. Search relevant references.
  27. Critically analyze according to the rules of EBM.
  28. Identify strengths and weaknesses, with emphasis on that playable, which must be adapted and innovations that can be introduced.
  29. Describe how work clinical or translational research according to their relevance, feasibility and resources available in different areas of Internal Medicine is planned.
  30. Structuring and writing competitive research project.
  31. Knowing how to establish the necessary contacts and collaborations.
  32. Formulate project cooperatively.
  33. Know the sources and funding institutions.
  34. Design a schedule.
  35. Planning publications, patents or other expected results.
  36. Knowing the tools of statistical analysis.
  37. Using a statistical package.
  38. Handle database leaves, both independent and linked to statistical packages.
  39. Interpret the results of studies for application in both groups of patients and individual levels through the perspective of evidence-based nursing.
  40. Distinguish the basic elements of analysis of results and drawing conclusions.
  41. Develop a critical reading of the scientific literature structured according to the various designs.

Contents

This module will explore different types of clinical research study (designs) applied to health field problems, and will look at the key aspects of its design and main sources of bias, the analysis and interpretation of results, and the aspects that should be considered to apply the results to specific patients or contexts. The module will also explore the acquisition of necessary skills for its application.


- External validity and applicability of clinical study results.


- Pragmatic clinical trials. The PRECIS-2 tool.


- Advanced searches for scientific evidence.


- Alternative formats for synthesising scientific knowledge: types of review.


- Bias and random error.


- Outcome variables for measuring the effects of interventions.


- Innovative interventions. The use of ICT in healthcare.


- The CONSORT-EHEALTH and TIDIeR-Telehealth tools.


- Qualitative research: concepts and resources.


- Quasi-experimental studies.


- Research into infectious diseases.


- Research into rare diseases: disease registries and special research designs.


- Knowledge transfer and research in science communication.


- Sex and gender perspectives in research.


- Data analysis in observational studies: adjustment techniques.


- Real-world evidence (RWE) studies in primary care: registry-based research.


- Health and clinical information systems for research.


- Research integrity.


- The challenges of research into non-pharmacological interventions.


- Research into non-pharmacological interventions. The TIDieR tool.


- Scientific writing.


- The scientific evidence ecosystem.


- Complex interventions.


- How to draft the final report for a research project.


- How to draft a good discussion section for a reseeach report.


Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
On-site sessions 75 3
Comprehensive reading of texts. Reviews, (individual or group) bibliographic essays from a guideline. Drawing up schemes, concept maps and summaries. 136 5.44
Scheduled tutoring 25 1

The module includes of a set of 24 sessions on the topics specified in the previous section. On-site lessons will include basic specific bibliographic references provided to the students in each session. Additionally, in some selected sessions, students will be encouraged to conduct an individual ('deliverable') practice papers from a suggested piece of literature or material. These papers are intended to assess the degree of understanding of methodological or practical aspects considered essential to guarantee the students’ competence to successfully complete a doctoral thesis project in Health Sciences. Some sessions also include online assessment tasks.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Exam (multiple choice test) 45% 2 0.08 3, 4, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 41
Delivery of written works or practical activities 35% 12 0.48 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 36, 40, 41
Class attendance 20% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41
The assessment system is organised in 2 sections (exam and delivery of home tasks), each of which will have a specific weight in the final qualification, in addition to a percentage corresponding to attendance and active participation in class.

"The commission of any irregularity in an assessment act (academic fraud, plagiarism or improper use of AI, unless such use is expressly authorized in the teaching guide), which may lead to a significant variation in the grade, means that this act will be graded with a 0. In the event that the teaching guide provides that to pass the subject it is an essential requirement to have obtained a minimum grade in this assessment act or that several irregularities occur in the assessment acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject is 0. Apart from this, a disciplinary process may be initiated against the student who incurs any of these irregularities."

Bibliography

Bibliografia bàsica: 1.- Argimon JM, Jiménez J. Métodos de investigación clínica y epidemiológica. 4ª ed. Madrid: Elsevier España, SA, 2012.

2.- Polit , D. Hungler, B. Investigación científica en ciencias de la salud. (6ª Ed). México: McGraw- Hill Interamericana, 2003.

3.- Hernández Sampieri R, Fernández Collado C, Baptista Lucio P. Fundamentos de metodología de la investigación. Madrid: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

4.- Badia Llach X, editor. La investigación de resultados en salud: de la evidencia a la práctica clínica. Barcelona: Novartis, 2000.

5.-Vazquez Navarrete, ML (coord.); Ferreira da Silva, MR; Mogollón Pérez, AS; Fernández de Sanmamed Santos, MJ; Delgado Gallego, ME; Vargas Lorenzo, I. Introducción a las técnicas cualitativas de investigación en salud. Cursos GRAAL 5. Serveis publicacions UAB. Bellaterra. 2005.

6- Báez y Pérez de Tudela, J. Investigación cualitativa. Madrid: ESIC. 2007.

7.- Cobo E, Muñoz P, González JA. Bioestadística para no estadísticos: bases para interpretar artículos científicos. Ámsterdam: Elsevier Masson, 2007.

8.- Hulley SB...[et al.]. Diseño de investigaciones clínicas. 3ª ed. Barcelona: Wolters Kluwer, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007

9.- Ruiz Morales A, Morillo Zárate LE. Epidemiología clínica: investigación clínica aplicada. 1ª ed. 2ª reimp. Bogotá: Médica Panamericana, 2006.

Bibliografia de consulta:

1.- Rodríguez del Águila MM, Pérez S, Sordo L, Fernández MA. Cómo elaborar un protocolo de investigación en salud.Med Clin (Barc).2007;129(8):299-302. 4

en salud. Med Clin (Barc).2007;129(8):299-302.

2.- Altman DG, Moher D. Elaboración de directrices para la publicación de investigación biomédica: proceso y fundamento científico. Medicina Clínica. 2005; 125 (Supl.1): 8-8.

Enlaces web:

1.- http://ebevidencia.com/

2.- https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/

3.- https://www.epistemonikos.org/es/

4.- http://www.bibliotecacochrane.com/

5.- http://www.redcaspe.org/herramientas/instrumentos

6._ http://methods.cochrane.org/bias/

Software

No specific softward is requiered for this module.

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE

Type of teaching Group Language Semester Shift
(TEm) Theory (master) 101 Spanish second semester afternoon
(SEMm) Seminars (master) 101 Spanish second semester afternoon