Lessons

This space offers lessons and educational content in research and epidemiology, aimed at strengthening the understanding of key concepts, methods, and tools for the study and analysis of health issues

Research methodology

Scientific Research I

What is a variable?

Types of variables: qualitative and quantitative

Tools

Instituto Nacional de Salud (INS), Colombia

Home INS: Website that provides access to the information collected by the SIVIGILA system
Event report and dashboards: Website that provides access to Power BI dashboards on public health events of interest in Colombia
Notification forms and protocols: Website that provides access to notification forms and protocols for public health events under surveillance in Colombia through the SIVIGILA system

Statistical analysis

OpenEpi Menu : OpenEpi produces statistics for case counts and measures in descriptive and analytical studies, stratified analysis with exact confidence limits, analysis of paired data and person-time data, sample size and power calculations, random numbers, sensitivity, specificity, and other evaluation statistics, R × C tables, chi-square tests for dose–response, and links to other sites of interest.

Data visualization

Healthmap: It is an online platform that uses artificial intelligence to monitor and visualize the real-time spread of diseases worldwide.

Fundamentals of Data Visualization: This is the website for the book “Fundamentals of Data Visualization,” published by O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Database Analysis Using R and RStudio

In the following repository, you will find:
- A folder with the DIVIPOLA codes for municipalities and departments
- An example script of the libraries you need to install in R and RStudio (0. Library_Installation_2026_06)
- An example script of the appropriate steps to clean a dataset (1. Data_Cleaning_2026_06)
  - Initial exploration of the dataset
  - Adjustment of column names (variables)
  - Identification of empty data
  - Definition of column classes
  - Modification of columns or variables according to a criterion
  - Adjustment of DIVIPOLA variables
  - Review of inconsistencies between dates
- An example script on how to explore a dataset (2. Data_Exploration_2026_06)
- An example script on how to create tables and charts using a dataset (3. Tables_and_Charts_2026_06)
  - How to create a bar chart by date
  - How to create a table using tbl_summary