Section outline

  • Full-Class Conversation with Steve Cummings: Sample Size, P-Values and Confidence Intervals

    Recorded lecture segments by Steve Cummings: An introduction to the concepts and information needed to estimate sample sizes for various types of studies. It includes suggestions for making more affordably sized studies.

    Full-class online conversation with Steve Cummings:  Join an in-person discussion with Dr. Cummings about the week's lecture material, his career in clinical research and advice for early career investigators, and Q&A with students about topics, concepts and specific projects, with facilitation by Dr. Pletcher.

    Faculty: Steve R. Cummings, MD

    Steve is a UCSF-trained general internist who led the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine for a decade. He has spent almost 40 years designing, conducting, and teaching about clinical research.  He founded and directs the S.F. Coordinating Center that has designed, led, and conducted many large multicenter clinical trials and cohort studies.  He co-founded the Clinical Research Training program and co-authors Designing Clinical Research.  He is an Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF and also Senior Scientist at the CPMC Research Institute.  Steve’s own research has focused mainly on predicting and preventing fractures and understanding the biological basis of aging.  He has published over 500 peer-reviewed papers and has received numerous awards for his research in osteoporosis and women’s health, and was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) for his work in clinical research in general and women’s health in particular.

    Location:  MB-Genentech Hall 106, Byers Auditorium


    • Session Slides:

    • Lecture 3 - Steve Cummings - Sample Size File

    • Session Audio/Video Recording (Access restricted to registered students):

    • Steve Cummings - Lecture 3, Part 1 Media Resource
      Not available unless: You belong to a group in Registered Students Only
    • Steve Cummings - Lecture 3, Part 2 Media Resource
      Not available unless: You belong to a group in Registered Students Only
    • Steve Cummings - Lecture 3, Part 3 Media Resource
      Not available unless: You belong to a group in Registered Students Only

    • Assignment 3:

      • Read Chapters 5 and 6 in DCR-4
      • Read Bacchetti 2010 on Sample Size Reasoning (see Materials)
      • Optional: Read Chapter from Goldman Textbook written by Tom and Chuck (see Materials)
      • Watch Steve Cummings’s recorded lecture segments on “Sample Size, P-Values and Confidence Intervals” (See Materials)
      • Write a 1/2-page Sample Size Justification (see Assignment Details)
      • Bring paper copy of writing to Small Group on Tuesday, and turn in revised version by Wednesday at Midnight
    • Assignment 3 Details File
    • Assignment 3 Example File

    • Materials:

    • Bacchetti 2010: Current sample size conventions: Flaws, harms and alternatives File
      Not available unless: Your ID number contains 02
    • Statistical Interpretation of Data (Chapter from Goldman Textbook of Medicine, 24th ed, by Tom and Chuck). Note material in green is included only in the online text, hence it is not what is most important. File
      Not available unless: Your ID number contains 02
    • Sample size calculator (CTSI) URL
    • Sample size calculator (Quesgen) URL
    • Downloadable sample size program URL