Section outline

  • Lecture: Subjects and Variables

    Format: In-Class Lecture

    Topic: Defining target and accessible populations; inclusion and exclusion criteria; balancing feasibility and generalizability; sampling; types of variables and measurements; maximizing precision and accuracy; example from Tom's research on hyperbilirubinemia in neonates.

    Faculty:  Tom Newman

    Location:  MB-Genentech Hall 106, Byers Auditorium

    Faculty Bio: Tom is Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Pediatrics and former Chief of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.   He received his undergraduate degree from UC Santa Cruz, MD from UC San Diego, Residency Training in Pediatrics at UCSF and MPH in Epidemiology from UC Berkeley.  Tom attends in the newborn nursery at the UCSF Children's Medical Center and in the pediatric urgent care clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.  Most of his research has used existing data to answer clinically relevant research questions.  He has a major role in UCSF's Training in Clinical Research (TICR) Program, and is a coauthor of two of the textbooks used in that training program: Designing Clinical Research and Evidence-Based Diagnosis.  He is on the Steering Committee of the Greater SF Bay Area Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), chairs its Environmental Health Committee and recently completed 9 years on PSR's national Board of Directors.  He received the Academic Pediatric Association's Research Award in 2004, the American Academy of Pediatrics' Elizabeth Leistikow Award for Promotion of Evidence-based Pediatrics and the Stephen B. Hulley Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Clinical Research in 2010, the first UCSF Faculty Sustainability Award in 2011, and the Academic Pediatric Association's Miller-Sarkin mentoring award in 2017. 

    • Session Slides:

    • Lecture 2 slides File

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

    • Watch URL
      Not available unless: You belong to Registered Students Only

    • Pre-recorded version of lecture from prior year (Access restricted to registered students):

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

    • Assignment 2

    • Assignment 2 File
    • Assignment 2 Example File

    • Materials:

    • Tom Newman: How do we know what we know? URL
    • Mark Pletcher - Mini-lecture - Study Design Basics Media Resource
      Not available unless: You belong to Registered Students Only

    • Optional reading from Tom Newman relevant to his Subjects and Variables lecture:

    • Newman 2006 NEJM Outcomes of TB 25 or more File
    • Newman 1991 AJDC Direct Bilirubin Measurements in Jaundiced Term Newborns File
    • Newman 2003 Stories Statistics BMJ File