SP-14 Chairside Statistics
CE: 1.0
Recent research suggests that patients prefer active and collaborative engagement as opposed to passive participation in decision making. To implement evidence-based dentistry, clinicians must have the skills required to critically appraise the validity, reliability and applicability of literature. Validity refers to the soundness of the methodology; a poorly designed study often will yield inaccuracies, inappropriate to support clinical decisions. To assess the reliability, clinicians should know how to interpret, translate and convey the clinically relevant and applicable results to their patients so that a patient can clearly grasp the implications as it applies to the clinical decision making. Therefore, clinicians should know how to interpret the clinically related results and be able to translate them. Using relevant endodontic literature based examples, this presentation aims to provide a simplified guide in interpreting the most used statistical measures as applied to the studies of prognosis, diagnosis and therapy.
At the conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Discuss how measures of effect are reported within studies.
- Discuss how uncertainty in results can be summarized.
- Discuss how to interpret p-values and confidence intervals.
Amir Azarpazhooh, D.D.S., M.Sc., Ph.D.
Dr. Amir Azarpazhooh received his DDS from Iran (2001), his speciality training at the University of Toronto (UofT) in Dental Public Health (2007) and endodontics (2010), followed by his PhD in 2011. He is a UofT full-time tenured Associate Professor, with cross-appointments to the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Faculty of Medicine, and Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment Collaborative, UofT. He is also the Head of both Divisions of Endodontics and Research at the Department of Dentistry, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto.
Currently, his attributed grants and awards total more than CDN $1.25M and these have enabled him to manage a strong group of graduate students over the years. To date, he has been an editor of a textbook on evidence-based dentistry, has published six book chapters, and more than 150 papers, abstracts and reports and has presented at over 50 national and international scientific meetings. He has been awarded nationally and internationally, by the Cochrane Canada, the Canadian Academy of Endodontics, and the American Association of Endodontists. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Endodontics.
Amir is a practicing endodontist, with part-time private practices in Toronto as well as a hospital practice in Mount Sinai Hospital providing endodontic care to patients when their medical, physical or mental status indicates the need for a hospital environment. Despite his heavy load of teaching, research and clinical practice, out of the office he enjoys life with his wife, travelling, cycling, photography, and gardening.
Amir Azarpazhooh, D.D.S., M.Sc., Ph.D., FRCD(C)
I declare that I have no proprietary, financial, or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service, course, and/or company, or in any firm beneficially associated therewith, that will be discussed or considered during the proposed presentation.
