Programmkurse

The 2 SWS of compulsory propedeutics (ethics, project management) also apply to our students.

Students graduated in technical or formal sciences (who comprise the “regular clientele” of the course) are required to select 4 SWS out of the medical fields offered within the propedeutics (not Biostatistics, not Basic Natural Sciences).

In accordance with the PhD-regulation this amounts to 6 SWS of propedeutics.
Students with background in technical or formal sciences may select an alternative propedeutics, replacing one of the regular medical propedeutics.

For regular propedeutics see Propedeutics.

Additional Statistical Propedeutics

Depending on their previous knowledge in the field of medical biostatistics applicants may additionally be required to take the propedeutics in ""Medical Biostatistics 1"" (2 SWS, WS), ""Medical Biostatistics 2 "" (2 SWS, WS). In case of very limited previous knowledge in this field also  Preparatory Course Medical Biostatistics may be prescribed.

Propedeutics Medical Biostatistics 1 (s.a. Propedeutics: Medical Biostatistics I)
Introduction to probability theory; Statistical tests: general principle of statistical testing, t-test, Wilcoxon, rank-sum/Mann-Whitney-U-test, chi-square-test, confidence intervals, multiple testing, analysis of variance, correlation, regression, sample size determination, Kaplan-Meier estimates, log-rank test.

Propedeutics Medical Biostatistics 2 (.s.a. Propedeutics: Medical Biostatistics II)
Introduction to the statistical software system R; reproducible statistical analysis using R-markdown; Statistical tests and models; Aims of statistical modeling: description, prediction and explanation; modeling of nonlinear associations between predictors and outcome variable; modeling of interactions; validation of prediction models; analysis of binary outcomes with logistic regression; analysis of time-to-event data with Cox regression; Analysis of clustered data

Preparatory Course Medical Biostatistics
Additional Propedeutics in Informatics & IT-Skills
Applicants who did not receive specific training in informatics may be required to additionally take selected courses from
the bachelor program in “Medical Informatics”, given at the University of Vienna:
or also from the master program in “Medical Informatics”, given at MUW:

For almost every project to be performed within this PhD-program, IT-Skills in one (or more) of the following fields will be required:

• Databank handling
• C++
• Java
• Matlab
• Perl

To avoid redundancy, this program does not offer a compulsory track on programming. However, depending on their skills, applicants may be required to take one of the courses already offered within the informatics curricula at University of Vienna and Technical University, such as:

• Einführung in die Programmierung: C++ Grundlagen (Prozedurales Programmieren, Datentypen, Arrays, Stack, Grundlagen des Hashing, Klassen, Pointer. Praxis: Kleinere Übungsbeispiele, typischer Einführungskurs)
• Datenbanksysteme (Oracle, Datenbankschemata, Relationalalgebra, Normalformen. Praxis: Web Applikation unter Verwendung der Datenbank. Außerdem kleinere Übungsbeispiele zu Relationalalgebra und Normalformen)
• Softwarearchitekturen (PHP, XML, XMLS, XPath, Einführung in Webservices: WSDL/SOAP. Praxis: Webapplikation in PHP, persistente Datenspeicherung mittels XML, Verwendung von Sessions. Außerdem ein Webservice implementieren)

Students are advised to agree with their supervisors and the coordinator on an additional programming propedeutics of 2 SWS or even 4 SWS, which is tailored to the specific needs of their project.

Total amount and goal of additional propedeutics (moved to somewhere)
The total amount of additional propedeutics in statistics, informatics and programming must not exceed 4 SWS.

After 1 semester of study, our students should have IT-skills qualifying them as valuable employees within projects put forward and financed by clinical partners and biomedical research units of the MUW. This goal is a crucial motivation for additional propedeutics and also part of the strategy to disseminate cooperation and knowledge.

Basic Course (4 x 1 Semester hours)

This PhD Curriculum offers selectable blocks of 1 Semester-hours, each covering an essential field of the program. The level of these basic lectures is adjusted so as to be understandable by post-graduate students from diverse fields.

The goal of the basic course is to provide a general, open minded insight into different areas of the PhD program. It is the intention to open access, to further acquisition of knowledge, if needed. Lectures will be accompanied by selected textbooks for deepening in the subject whenever possible.

In accordance with the MUW guidelines, the student has to select a minimum of 4 Semester hours, either from the following blocks or – after consent by the coordinator - from basic courses of other accredited MUW-Programs, such as the Biomedical Engineering program. By mutual accreditation of courses, it is aimed at creating a complementing rather than a competing environment.

Exams will be held in written or oral form. Lecturers provide questions for their respective sections and evaluate results according to a score system.

Basic Courses (1 SWS each) are repeated in a four-semestric cycle.
topics (in progress)

•  861.102 Basic Lecture - Complex Systems WS 2023/24
  (1SSt VO, WS 2023/24)
•  861.114 Basic Lecture - Biostatistics: medical applications and current methodological challenges SS2024
  (1SSt VO, SS 24)
•  Machine Learning & AI
  (1SSt VO, WS 2024/25)
•  Selected Topics in Medical Information Management and Outcomes Research
  (1SSt VO, SS 2025)

Lecture notes for participants (in Moodle)

•     Journal Clubs (6 x 2 Semester hours)

At least one JC is offered each Semester, which all students of the program are supposed to attend. Papers to be presented will be selected with a different thematic focus in each semester. We aim at selecting review papers to catch the interest of the broader audience of this PhD program.
One Journal club each week is to be held by a student or invited lecturer, all students of the program participate.

•     Thesis Seminars (4 x 2 Semester hours)

The Thesis seminars (2 Hrs / week) are the very place to penetrate deeply into each specific field. Therefore, each section itself has to provide an adequate schedule and is free to combine seminars with their section-research-meetings.

Once a year, all sections offer “lab-visits”, in which they present their ""toolboxes of methods"" to new PhD students. Each lab-visit takes one whole day. The intention is to make transparent for the students where to get fast and specific expertise in technical issues (""where are the specific skills? / whom can I ask?"").

Each student should do a small project each semester in the field of her/his thesis (informatics, complex systems, statistics). Students who have software-development as a major part of their thesis are encouraged to setup preliminary software pilots as small projects, so as to prepare the grounds for “THE thesis application”. Projects should be presented in seminars.

Announced thesis seminars:

•  TS Bioinformatics, Medical Information Management and Complex Systems
•  TS Biostatistical Methods in Medical Research
•  TS Computer Vision

    
If you are interested in a particular course, please register online in the MedCampus System and contact the organizer.

Overview: 4 semester cycle
Basic courses are held and repeated in a four semester cycle, see also basic courses.
All other seminars and JCs are repeated each semester.
Students entering the program in a deliberate semester will be able to finish the mandatory amount of basic courses within the first four semesters.