ICMR Offers 16-week Free Online Course on Biomedical Research

ICMR has offered a free online course called “Basic course in Biomedical Research” on the NPTEL platform. The course is mandatory for Medical postgraduates of the academic year 2019 to 2020 onwards and teachers in medical institutions affiliated to the National Medical Commission. This online course is being offered by ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE), Chennai. This uniform research methodology course has been mandated by the National Medical Commission (NMC, erstwhile Medical Council of India).

The course will be conducted by faculty members from the public health, epidemiology or research methods training programs at the ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, India. The course materials include video lectures reading or resource materials, example accompaniments, workbooks, lecture handouts and frequently asked questions. Participants will receive certificates based on their performance in lecture wise assignments and a final proctored exam.

What the ICMR Free Online Course on Biomedical Research Will Cover?

ICMR basically aims at improving the research skills of Indian medical postgraduate students and teachers in medical institutions through the free online course. Some of the topics that will be covered as part of the course are as follows:

• Introduction to health research.
• Formulating research question, hypothesis and objectives.
• Literature review.
• Measures of disease frequency.
• Descriptive study designs.
• Analytical study designs.
• Experimental study designs.
• Validity of epidemiological studies.
• Qualitative research methods: An overview.
• Measurement of study variables.
• Sampling methods.
• Calculating sample size and power.
• Selection of study population.
• Study plan and project management.
• Designing data collection tools.
• Principles of data collection.
• Data management.
• Overview of data analysis, and so on.

The last date to enroll for the course on the NPTEL platform is 30 November 2021. Each lecture will have online assignments consisting of 10 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs). Assignment scores will be released after the assignment submission deadline. A minimum score of 50% in aggregate is required to register for the final proctored exam upon clearing which participants will receive an e-certificate. Those who wish to enroll are advised to visit the official website for further information.