Posts

This is the full list of posts. Compared with the Notes section — structured write-ups on a single topic — the posts here usually take one thing from start to finish: a problem I ran into in clinic, a pitfall in doing research, or how I turned a recurring annoyance into a tool.

[EBM] Should I calculate study power when results are not significant? Misleading post-hoc power

Note When reading papers or doing research and hitting a non-significant result, I always remember what my statistics teacher said: “Not significant means we cannot reject the null hypothesis, not that the two are the same.” We’ve also learned that the ability to detect a difference between the two is called statistical power. So, if we calculate the power of the data, and if this “ability to detect a difference” is greater than 80%, but we still get a non-significant result, does that mean the two groups of data are really similar? ...

ACSM-CPT Prep (Part 1): Introduction

I got my American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM-CPT) certification! I guess I’m someone who really learns through my body. Back in college, I especially loved anatomy because I could feel those structures on myself. By observing my body, I could feel the presence of each part, try to see how they change under different conditions, and verify what the textbooks said. During my internship, learning about exercise prescription in PM&R was really interesting too. Even though I’m not a particularly sporty person, it gave me another discipline where I could observe the body. Trying to dissect the mechanics of a movement and imagining what’s happening inside is really fascinating! Maybe that’s also why I eventually chose PM&R~ ...

ACSM-CPT Prep (2): Resources

ACSM isn’t very common in Taiwan, but it’s an internationally important certification, so if you study in English, there are a lot of resources! However, because time was limited, around the time I registered for the ACSM, I also signed up for the neurorehabilitation annual meeting, lower limb orthotics, dysphagia, and pediatric muscle spasticity courses (everyone crams these into April and May!). So, I moved forward with the goal of learning as quickly as possible. Here are the resources I used during my prep: ...

ACSM-CPT Prep (Part 3): Question Trends

The ACSM exam is 135 multiple-choice questions. Overall, the questions are very flexible. There are very few rote memorization questions. Many questions don’t have a single correct answer, only a best answer. You have to rely on a thorough understanding of each topic to judge which is the best option. This post is mainly to let you understand the direction of the questions, and I’ll also provide a few questions I remember so you can see how flexible they are. ...

ACSM-CPT Prep (Part 4): The Prep Process and Test Day

It took me 25 days from taking the course to taking the exam. I was taking other classes in between, so my actual time spent studying for the ACSM was about 10 days. Because I’d previously interned in physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R), I’d already picked up a lot of related knowledge, and I was very familiar with the anatomy and physiology. My prep time was probably on the shorter side, so you can adjust the time you need accordingly. ...

Technology Helping People with Disabilities Bridge the Gap to the World

If an accident happened one day and we could only stay in bed, unable to go anywhere, how would our lives go on? Life Bedridden with Disability I saw a patient with a high-level spinal cord injury on a home visit this month. Since an accident at 27, he can only move above the shoulders. Turning over, eating, bathing, and going to the toilet all require help from others. His life has become permanently tethered to his bed. ...

<Systematic Review Workshop> Takeaway 1: Do we use PICO for diagnostic, prognostic, and harmfulness studies?

Prof. Edwin Chan is the Director of Cochrane Singapore. He’s considered a master of EBM and systematic reviews in Asia, with extensive academic experience. We were honored and lucky to have Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital invite him to hold a one-day workshop for us on December 5, 2018. To see a master like him, I rushed back to Hualien from Dalin, Chiayi, even if it meant taking the night train (it’s a long journey!). Over the next few posts, I’ll share a few key takeaways that left a deep impression on me. ...

Systematic Review Workshop Takeaway 2: Are Few Search Results a Sign of a Good Search Strategy?

After talking about setting a precise question (PICO), let’s look at the search results! We know that sometimes we see a situation where the results give us two thousand papers. That’s definitely overwhelming, making you doubt whether your keywords weren’t good enough, and so on. But, did you think you could just clap your hands in satisfaction when there are only 5 results!? (Well, obviously yes when you’re rushing to finish a report xD) ...