Courses that move medicine forward

MedRC Foundation Course

The MedRC Foundation Course is a practical, structured introduction to the essential skills needed to understand, conduct, and communicate medical and clinical research. The course begins on August 29, 2026, and includes 26 lessons, with each session lasting approximately 1.5 hours, on Saturdays and Sundays. The course combines interactive lectures, practical exercises, homework assignments, and applied research activities. All lectures will be recorded. Students will complete short assignments throughout the course to reinforce concepts and apply the skills learned in class. They will also participate in a mock peer-review exercise, working with a sample scientific manuscript to evaluate its methodology, statistical analysis, results, and conclusions and practice writing structured reviewer feedback. The course will introduce large language models (LLMs) as interactive tools for learning and performing statistical analysis, including understanding statistical concepts, selecting appropriate tests and models, assisting with statistical code, interpreting outputs, and identifying potential errors or inappropriate analyses. Sessions will use examples from medical research to connect theoretical concepts with how studies are designed, analyzed, written, reviewed, and published. The course is designed for medical students, physicians, healthcare professionals, and early-career researchers seeking a strong and practical foundation in medical research.