The following outlines requirements for the Certificate in Applied Biostatistics offered at the University of Washington.
Admission Requirements
To apply, you must have:
- A bachelor’s degree
- Familiarity with scientific, biologic or medical terminology
- Proficiency with algebraic manipulations, logarithms and exponential functions
- Good writing skills in English
To confirm that you have sufficient math skills for this program, complete the quantitative skills pre-test before you begin your application. You should expect to spend 30 to 40 minutes completing this assessment. You'll need a score of 60% (18/30) or above to be considered for admission. Your score will be displayed automatically once you've completed the assessment.
English Proficiency
If English is not your native language, you should have at least intermediate English skills to enroll. To learn how to demonstrate proficiency, see English Language Proficiency Requirements – Credit Programs.
International Students
Because this offering is 100% online, no visa is required and international students are welcome to apply. For more information, see Admission Requirements for International Students.
Technology Requirements
- Access to a computer (Mac or PC) with a recent operating system and a current web browser
- RStudio and R statistical software package (both are free downloads)
- High-speed internet connection
- Headset and webcam (recommended)
Earning the Certificate
You earn a certificate of completion by successfully completing all required courses. For more information, see Earning the Certificate.
Courses
Medical Biometry I
Course Details
- Location: Online
- Duration: 10 weeks
- Times: Evenings
- Cost : $4,240
- Next Start Date: September 30, 2026
About this Course
In this course, you’ll learn how to interpret the results of statistical analyses common in biomedical research after applying a variety of statistical methods and data manipulations using statistical software. We’ll expand your understanding of how to apply basic statistical concepts to answer scientific questions. You’ll explore how to apply appropriate statistical methods to analyze data sets from scientific and medical literature using the R software package.
What You’ll Learn
- Different types of study designs and how to apply different statistical tests
- How to interpret, report and draw conclusions from results
- How to program in R to graphically display data in a variety of formats
- Best practices for data presentation, interpretation and results reporting
Get Hands-On Experience
You’ll complete a data analysis project using real-world examples to manipulate data, display and report results, and draw appropriate conclusions.
Medical Biometry II
Course Details
- Location: Online
- Duration: 9 weeks
- Times: Evenings
- Cost : $4,240
- Next Start Date: January 4, 2027
About this Course
The second course in the program presents methods and strategies for developing both simple and complex models in R, allowing you to analyze relationships in multivariate data using linear regression. We’ll explore how to evaluate the model fit, compute confidence intervals on the model parameters, identify outlier data, and interpret what the model parameters represent. At the end of the course, you’ll be able to use R to analyze and display how well the models represent complex data, as well as be able to interpret and report on the results.
Prerequisites:
Medical Biometry I or equivalent statistical and R programming experience
What You’ll Learn
- How to formulate an appropriate model to answer a scientific question
- How to interpret and graphically display and report results
- How to use and interpret results from multiple linear regression models
- How to use and interpret results from Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and 1- and 2-way ANOVA models
- Details about data transformations, dummy variables and outlier detection
Get Hands-On Experience
You’ll complete a data analysis project using real-world examples to examine data, display and report results, and draw appropriate conclusions.
Medical Biometry III
Course Details
- Location: Online
- Duration: 9 weeks
- Times: Evenings
- Cost: $4,240
- Next Start Date: March 29, 2027
About this Course
The final course in the program introduces the principles and methods of statistical inference for categorical data and censored survival data. You’ll learn to use R to load, manipulate and analyze categorical and binary data. We’ll construct contingency tables and use R to calculate various risk measures and confidence intervals around those measures. You’ll learn to fit logistic regression models to data, obtain model coefficients and odds ratios, and formulate and test hypotheses about them. We’ll use product limit measures (Kaplan-Meier), Cox regression models and log-rank tests to perform hypothesis tests, calculate confidence intervals and draw conclusions in a variety of cases.
Prerequisites:
Medical Biometry II or equivalent statistical and R programming experience.
What You’ll Learn
- How to analyze binary outcome data using risk differences, relative risk and odds ratios
- How to perform hypothesis testing and obtain confidence intervals for binary outcome data using logistic regression models
- How to perform hypothesis testing and obtain confidence intervals for time to event data using Cox regression models
- How to distinguish between and perform exploratory and confirmatory analyses
- How to interpret and critique the results of applications of statistical techniques found in the health science literature
Get Hands-On Experience
You'll complete a data analysis project using real-world examples to manipulate data, display and report results, and draw appropriate conclusions.
Interested in Applying?
Email bioadmit@uw.edu for more information