Research skills and the data spreadsheet: a research primer for low- and middle-income countries

Research skills and the data spreadsheet: a research primer for low- and middle-income countries

Taylor DM; Hodkinson PW; Khan AS; Simon EL

African Journal Of Emergency Medicine

2020

1905-07

The specialty of Emergency Medicine continues to expand and mature worldwide. As a relatively new specialty, the body of research that underpins patient management in the emergency department (ED) setting needs to be expanded for optimum patient care. Research in the ED, however, is complicated by a number of issues including limited time and resources, urgency for some therapeutic investigations and interventions, and difficulties in obtaining truly informed patient consent. Notwithstanding these issues, many of the fundamental principles of medical research apply equally to ED research. In all medical disciplines, data needs to be collected, collated and stored for analysis and a data spreadsheet is employed for this purpose. Like other aspects of clinical research, the use of the data spreadsheet needs to be exacting and appropriate. This research primer explores the choice of available spreadsheets and a range of principles for their best-practice use. It is deliberately, not an exhaustive review of the subject. However, we aim to explore basic principles and some of the most accessible and widely used data spreadsheets.

Research; Data; Spreadsheet

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

journalArticle

S140-S144

2

10

2211-419X

NEOMED College of Medicine

Department of Emergency Medicine

January 2021 List

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