Is there alternative to medicine

 ELECTIVE: IS THERE ALTERNATIVE TO MEDICINE?
 
Course schedule
The course lasts 5 days, 5 hours each day, with one theme covered per day.

Mon to Friday from 13:00 to 17:00 - Comupter room 5th floor.

Day 1st consists of 3 hours of lectures and 2 hours of seminars, and each of the next 4 days consists of 2 hours of seminars and 3 hours of practical work.
Day 1. Scientific method and scientific reasoning; types of studies in biomedicine, testing interventions in health.
Day 2. Analysis of a research articles on “alternative” interventions.
Day 3. Planning clinical testing of “alternative” interventions (student's choice of disease/state and intervention).
Day 4. Making the list of “alternative” interventions and systematic reviews on effects of each of them.
Day 5. Analysis of pro and con research articles on “alternative” interventions for diseases/states (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, smoking cessation, low back pain, other – own choice).

Students' materials for each day of the course

WRITING REFERENCES - International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
 
During practical work, the students will search literature sources for evidence about “complementary and alternative” methods (it suffices to use the PubMed database) and critically assess the quality of evidence. They will also assess study design of the retrieved studies and compare it with designs used for testing interventions in medicine. In seminars they report the found arguments and discuss them.
 
Competencies
Critical assessment of scientific evidence;
Understanding the principles of fair tests in health care
 
Textbooks
Mandatory:
Marušić M, editor. Principles of Research in Medicine. 1st edition. Zagreb: Medicinska naklada; 2008.
 
Supplementary reading:
Ferenczi E, Muirhead N. One Stop Doc. Statistics and Epidemiology. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2007.
More acupuncture Tooth Fairy science as 2015 approaches its end.

Examination
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