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May  9 & 10, 2026

Understanding Basics of Health Research

Hilton Doha Hotel, Qatar

Schedule

Registration
  • Sign-In
Introductions
Pre-assessment survey
  • Identify current knowledge pertaining to basic health research
Speaker:
Dr. Sohaila Cheema
Introduction to research and epidemiological concepts
  • Define epidemiology and biostatistics 
  • Outline steps in conducting research 
  • Discuss basic concepts in epidemiology

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Ravinder Mamtani
Coffee break
Measuring health and disease
  • Define and discuss incidence and prevalence 
  • Explain the different types of mortality rates 
  • Describe adjustment of rates

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Ravinder Mamtani
Lunch and Prayers
Introduction to biostatistical concepts
  • Outline different types of variables
  • Describe frequency distribution 
  • Produce box plotting

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Karima Chaabna
Population, sampling and probability
  • Describe sampling method 
  • Calculate sample size 
  • Define validity and generalizability

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Karima Chaabna
Coffee break
Study design: descriptive epidemiology and analytical studies
  • Discuss various study designs – cross-sectional, correlation, case-control, and prospective 
  • Explain measures of risk – odds ratio, relative risk and attributable risk 
  • Appraise concepts of disease causation 
  • Discuss criteria that support causal inference

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Ravinder Mamtani
Lessons learnt so far
  • Summarize learning from Day 1

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Sohaila Cheema
Prophylactic and therapeutic trials
  • Describe clinical trial designs 
  • Review the use of clinical trials 
  • Interpret results from clinical trials

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Amit Abraham
Tests for statistical significance: qualitative and quantitative
  • Discuss tests of significance
  • Describe p-value, confidence intervals and other measures of significance

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Karima Chaabna
Coffee break
Regression and correlations
  • Discuss concepts of regression and correlation
  • Interpret linear and logistic regressions

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Karima Chaabna
Lunch and Prayers
Screening in health and disease
  • Describe screening
  • Discuss the value of screening in public health
  • Define and calculate sensitivity and specificity

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Ravinder Mamtani
Understanding and interpreting research
  • Practice and apply learning from the workshop
  • Interpret published literature

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Sohaila Cheema
Coffee break
Hot topics in research
  • Discuss what is wrong with research
  • Examine evidence-based healthcare 
  • Outline infectious disease epidemiology

Interactive activity/questions and answers

Speaker:
Dr. Ravinder Mamtani
Post activity reflection and knowledge assessment survey
  • Summarize key learning points from the workshop
  • Assess knowledge uptake from the workshop
Speaker:
Dr. Sohaila Cheema