Some hands-on sessions offered the opportunity to practise epidemiological concepts, such as the different measures of disease frequency, others discussed the advantages and disadvantages of different study designs when trying to answer a specific research question. As many participants had not only come to learn about epidemiology, but also to try and make a start with analysing their own data, there were a number of hands-on sessions focusing on data analysis using the SPSS statistical package in practice.

Although two days is a very short time period to bring across a large quantity of information, the far majority of the participants found that the course was quite successful in doing so. This first course took place in a very friendly atmosphere and provided the opportunity for participants and teachers to get to know each other, which will facilitate scientific collaboration in future. We hope that the course participants will even more enjoy their clinical research activities and that they will be able to use their newly gained knowledge in daily practice.

We have planned two more courses for 2005. The dates and venue will be announced in this newsletter as well as in the CME courses section on the ERA-EDTA and the NDT-educational websites.

Course participants and faculty

Lecture Friedo Dekker

Computer Laboratory