Thiel College Psychology Professor takes passion for statistics to medical school

Posted August 23, 2019 Print

GREENVILLE, Pa.-- Thiel College Associate Professor of Psychology Kristel M. Gallagher, Ph.D., led a summer workshop for future doctors recently at the Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lillington, N.C.

Gallagher taught the three-day intensive course to rising second-year students in the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program, introducing them to the “Passion-Driven Statistics” curriculum she uses in her semester-long “Statistics for the Social Sciences” course at Thiel College.

“The success of this program at the graduate level, particularly in the medical domain, is exciting to consider as Thiel College continues to grow and develop their allied health partnerships,” Gallagher said.

Students in the workshop tackled much of the 16-week curriculum in under three days, with their work culminating in research posters and presentations. As medical students, the workshop attendees focused on using statistics to answer original research questions with clinical value and application, such as examining how depressive symptoms and religiosity jointly relate to opioid use among pregnant women. Similar to how the course is conducted at Thiel College, the medical students used large, publicly-available datasets to answer their research questions and develop statistical analysis skills.

This workshop was organized by the Passion-Driven Statistics founder and National Science Foundation-grant holder for the curriculum, Lisa Dierker, Ph.D., from Wesleyan University. Gallagher co-led the workshop with Passion-Driven Statistics Associate Kristin Flaming.