Miscellaneous Flashcards
What is medical research
Something conducted to test new treatments or compare existing ones
Can involve Dr’s, nurses and allied healthcare professionals
May examine drugs, procedures or service delivery methods
Often uses randomised controlled trials (RCT’s)
Double blind trials prevent bias from participants and researchers
What are placebo trials
When an inactive dummy treatment is used to appear identical to a real one
Helps to control the psychological effect of treatments
Important for eliminating bias - nobody know if they have the placebo or not
Allows researchers to isolate the true effects of active treatments
What are epidemiological studies
They examine the patterns of disease and illness in a population
Look at factors like diet, race, age, occupation, environment
Compares groups with and without specific conditions
Helps to identify potential causes and risk factors
Guides further research in to disease mechanisms
What are mortality and morbidity statistics
Mortality = death rate in a population
Morbidity = prevalence or incidence of a disease
Data is collected by Government Statistics Office
Used to track population health trends over time
important for public health planning and research
