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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Understanding Medical Research: Your Facebook Friend is Wrong by Yale University

4.9
stars
1,869 ratings

About the Course

How can you tell if the bold headlines seen on social media are truly touting the next big thing or if the article isn't worth the paper it's printed on? Understanding Medical Studies, will provide you with the tools and skills you need to critically interpret medical studies, and determine for yourself the difference between good and bad science. The course covers study-design, research methods, and statistical interpretation. It also delves into the dark side of medical research by covering fraud, biases, and common misinterpretations of data. Each lesson will highlight case-studies from real-world journal articles. By the end of this course, you'll have the tools you need to determine the trustworthiness of the scientific information you're reading and, of course, whether or not your Facebook friend is wrong. This course was made possible in part by the George M. O'Brien Kidney Center at Yale....

Top reviews

JM

Aug 1, 2020

Excellent course for physical therapists wanting to learn how to critically review the research literature. For those of us who completed physical therapy school > 15 years ago, this course is a must!

JA

Jul 24, 2020

This is a great course that helps you interpret the correct way to read clinical studies. It's something I'll use, especially when and if I am asked to take a medication that has serious side effects.

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1 - 25 of 637 Reviews for Understanding Medical Research: Your Facebook Friend is Wrong

By Diane F

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May 26, 2020

As a retired college professor who was involved in online learning in its infancy, I am impressed with the outstanding utilization of lecture + graphics + internet.

This particular course is a must-view for everyone, particularly during a pandemic when social media proliferates with phony bits of data masked to look and sound like scientific bits of data.

An added bonus for me is Dr. Wilson's humor and narrative style.

Thank you for offering this most excellent course.

By Luis R B

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Jun 21, 2020

I think the title of the course "Your Facebook Friend is Wrong" causes the course to be seriously missed. "Understanding Medical Research" would suffice

By Kenneth A

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May 25, 2020

Honestly an excellent course! I teach online. I take courses online and I have spent an embarrassing number of years studying at universities. This was a very good course.

The best part (aside from the professor's obvious intellectual enthusiasm for the subject matter and that COVID is absorbing all the world's newsprint and electrons right now) is that the professor really taught to the big take-ways. Not only did he summarize them at the end, but he really focused the course on creating an intuitive understanding of the key points and did not get too involved in the details that one is doomed to forget.

By Suresh P

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Jun 2, 2020

Of the many classes I have taken on Coursera, this will be one of the the more memorable ones. I would like to thank Dr. Wilson on the quality of the material, both the information content and depth, and presentation. The information is timely, given the Covid-19 crisis and the number of media articles about tests. The information discussed went a long way to help separate the "wheat from the chaff".

It sure was a surprise to see a cameo appearance of Dr. Schiller. His class on Coursera, a few years back, was also top notch.

Thank you.

By Amber U

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May 21, 2020

This course is fantastic. I have a PhD and consider myself very analytic, but I was unaware of the vast majority of issues discussed here. I will never look at medical research the same way again, and I will always look more closely with everything I learned in this course in mind!

By Lam A T

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Apr 29, 2020

I enjoy studying this course , the material and video example are well made ,and easy to understand too . Overall this course is great and really helpful it also help me improve on my judgement skill.

By Dr C E W

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Sep 28, 2020

Well organized and informative content. Dr. Wilson was an engaging and knowledgeable faculty member; I look forward to enrolling in another course under his leadership.

Calvin E Woodland, EdD, PsyD

By Nadia H

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May 3, 2020

Excellent course providing a sound introduction to to topic. Content was enjoyable, lectures were engaging and presented with flair. Highly recommend to anyone who makes any life choices based on research they might read online, hear in the media etc

By JW M

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Aug 2, 2020

Excellent course for physical therapists wanting to learn how to critically review the research literature. For those of us who completed physical therapy school > 15 years ago, this course is a must!

By Joan A

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Jul 25, 2020

This is a great course that helps you interpret the correct way to read clinical studies. It's something I'll use, especially when and if I am asked to take a medication that has serious side effects.

By Hannah P

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May 20, 2020

Information was really interesting. I found the class to get better as it went on. The earlier lectures felt like they dragged a bit. I would have preferred they not used the multiple screens approach and made the presentation itself the bigger focus on the page as sometimes it was harder to read.

By Shuyan C

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Jul 9, 2020

the innovative ideas used to illustrate the vague concepts were interesting and effective; the professor is kind, nice and very capable of decomposing complex structure into digestible pieces, and delivering step by step to audience.

Overall, excellent, i give full mark.

By Cozma V

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May 25, 2020

Great introduction to medical research!

A lot of real cases presented in a easy to follow, fun and informative way.

Would love to see a part 2 of this course.

By Elene L

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Aug 9, 2020

I liked the review for me of my past courses in stat and research methods. I do not think anyone who never has a stat course could even follow this course, But i did enjoy the course and the content.

By Belal A D

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Mar 11, 2022

I'll be frank. This course made me hate my med school(already hated, but the hate grew, lol)

Here I was paying them thousands of dollars a year, only to get boring and low-yield and irrelevant content which never prepared me to be an academic clinician in the world of Evidence-Based Medicine.

And then there's this guy!! my man, the LEGEND, Dr. F Perry Wilson,giving all this GOLDMINE OF KNOWLEDGE absolutely for free !..really, our biostatistics and epidemiology courses should simply rewrite all their curriculum, NO, even better ! just cancel all their lectures and tell the students to take this course instead.

Although I've studied statistics before, in college and alone, this course still extremely helpful and enjoyable for me. And I will always recommend it to my juniors and students in the future.

Thank you Dr. Wilson for this masterpiece.

-General practitioner and an aspiring pediatrician

By Brian B

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Jun 2, 2020

Thank you Dr. Wilson and team for all the time invested in putting this course together. You managed the difficult task of presenting complex information in a way that can be understood in an introductory course. With lots of humor and good nature, you eased your students into understanding -- starting with simple, quirky, examples (especially liked the ones using Yale students), but always following up with actual research papers. If only your course were a prerequisite to opining on matters medical. Unexpected bonus: a cameo by Robert Schiller.

By Ellen S

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Jun 22, 2020

Dr. Wilson, thank you, I'm gobsmacked. Your course design, from one who used to Train Trainers professionally, is stellar. This course was more fun than imagined. Being right-brain dominant, I decided the best thing I could do for myself during our Covid19 lockdown was to choose something that would challenge my left-brained, statistic-phobic self. Your visuals and fast-paced presentation style kept me eager for the next module. Now I'm more confident in choosing and interpreting medical studies. Well done, and thank you very much!

By Ilona H

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Aug 23, 2020

This is a great course to do if you just need something to show to anti-science conspiracy facebook friends and relations when refuting their preposterous positions. That's the reason I enrolled and yet I got so much more out of this like a far greater understanding of the mechanics and systems of medical studies. It's mostly easy and also fun to get your head around some of the terms and how they are applied, I am excited about studying more now. I am sure my conspiracy theorists friends are not. :)

By Clifton L

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May 14, 2020

Professor Perry is an excellent teacher. I learned quite a bit from this course. His presentation of the material and his use of his personal anecdotes and the studies from the medical literature helped a novice, like myself, to understand the material more effectively and efficiently. There is so much misinformation today regarding the medical research surrounding the COVID 19 pandemic. I am going to encourage all of my colleagues to take this course.

By Anna K

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Jun 29, 2020

Definitely the best course I have taken on Coursera. I highly recommend it to everyone, but especially to those who would like to refresh their understanding of basic statistics and science underlying it. Dr Wilson is a very good professor who has an amazing ability to make complex matter comprehensible to almost everyone. Thank you very much, Dr Wilson and team! And I will do my best to persuade the anti-vaxxers I know to take the course :-)

By Lindsay K

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Jun 10, 2020

Fantastic course! I learned a ton of information that I can use both professionally as a journalist and personally, as someone whose Facebook feed is filled with misinformation. Topics were clearly explained with real world examples and I enjoyed the bonus COVID related content. The instructor also had great camera presence and while sometimes his jokes could be a bit corny, the overall presentation of the material was never dry or confusing.

By Chan C H H

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May 15, 2020

I will definitely recommend anyone that has little experience in reading medical literatures but wants to have an insight into understanding the basics of medical statistics. Dr. Wilson is very engaging and this will undoubtedly help me read literature with more caution when it comes to choosing journals for submitting my assignments. It will also allow me to learn to debunk some of the myths that my friends falsely believe in too!

By Susan M

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Jun 6, 2020

I have already left comments but will say again that I think this was very well done. Perry Wilson is a great presenter - makes difficult and complex concepts understandable. Even his, sometimes, cheesy examples contribute to understanding and learning. The visuals were very helpful. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to be more comfortable reading and interpreting scientific research. Thank you.

By Fanni K

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Sep 21, 2020

This is a very helpful course for anyone who wants to better understand what mainstream media articles with scary headlines that include "studies show...you will get sick from X" or "studies link X to Y and you may even die if you do X". I wish more reporters writing on medical studies, the current Covid-19 epidemic or on pharmaceutical discoveries/research would take this course.

By Ahmed I

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Jul 30, 2023

The course was exceptionally well-presented, from the graphic design of the slides to the verbal coherence and humor of the presenter. The main idea of each lecture was introduced and discussed in a comical and simple way all while retaining all important information and avoiding oversimplification. "Authentic and unique" would be an accurate way to describe this course.