The Math of Vaccine Science
Before 2020, IPAK-EDU did not exist. This summer, we'll teach you the math of vaccine science.
Analytics is a huge part of IPAK-EDU. Our aim is to empower people - not dozens, but hundreds - of people to be able to evaluate, with solid training, any vaccine study - and any public-health-related study, for that matter. The extra good news is that dyed-in-the-wool epidemiologist has agreed that this is an important mission, so she and I have developed the draft Syllabus for a Summer Bootcamp course. Hopefully, curriculum development will be underway soon!
If we have enough enrollees, you and your classmates will learn the basics of spreadsheet operations (we have a full course on that if you need it), and all of the following (subject to change):
1&2: Basic Spreadsheet Operations
3. OR - Odds Ratios
4. RR - Relative Risk
5. Absolute Risk - Absolute Risk
6. Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR)
7. Assessing "significance" - p-values - Association Tests
8. Confidence Intervals - Calculating CIs in Excel (Data CIs vs. Distributional CIs)
9. Outcomes - 1
Neutralizing Ab response, Ab response, B-cell and T-cell response
10. Outcomes - 2
Hospitalization and Deaths
11. Vaccine Efficacy
12. Statistical Power Curves
13. Definition of Cases
Symptomatic Cases - Indeterminate or mixed diagnosis
Medical Cases - Determine (definitive diagnoses)
Molecular Cases - RT-PCR/Antigen + vs -
14 Calculating Diagnostic Accuracy: TP, TN, FP, FN, PPV, NPV, Accuracy, ROC Curves
15. Confounding and what to do about it
16. Stratified Analysis: Interpreting subgroup analyses
Each lecture will have a calculation and inference exercise.
At the end of the bootcamp course, the students will be given a data challenge to assess their new skills. Check out the courses open for enrollment in our Analytics Track - and get your brain on!
Click on the Image Below to Visit the IPAK-EDU Analytics page:
Thrilling news, James! Do you have a specific link for the Summer Bootcamp course on vaccine science yet? I am planning to share this in an upcoming newsletter and want to append my affiliate code to the signup link :-)
Given that the purpose is to create a grassroots movement where private people can be trained to analyze data (focused on medical/pharmacological), what do you see them doing with their newly gained skill set? Is this just to be for personal use? I could see the dissemination of what they find being very helpful to the public who hungers and thirsts for truth, but at the same time am a wee bit leery of an organization arising, with the attendant possibility of corruption from within down the road. Can you say Federal Government?
I get into theoretical discussions frequently with my spouse, who at times can get frustrated with my sometimes thread-pulling on potential eventualities that I guess can seem like borrowing trouble. Hope my questions aren’t misconstrued. I’m genuinely excited and interested in where all this could go. I think this is wonderfully creative thinking and applaud you for looking outside the box for answers to some big problems.