Medical Student Clinical Epidemiology Program

This program is designed to train medical school graduates to become life-long educated consumers of the medical literature so that they can appropriately apply new research information to clinical practice.

Pre-Clinical Years

In the first year of medical school, students receive didactic training in the principles of epidemiology in the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course. In the second year, these principles are reinforced and applied to patient scenarios in the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) course. The skills of critical appraisal of the medical literature are introduced through lecture and applications integrated into the PBL curriculum.

Clinical Years

More explicit applied skills in evidence-based medicine are reinforced in clinical rotations in the third year. A Fourth Year Evidence-Based Medicine Course is directed by Dr. Joshua Samuels and provides an opportunity to reinforce the principles of epidemiology as they apply to clinical practice. The course is integrated with the outpatient rotation in general internal medicine. After a didactic session on the process of asking questions, finding information, and critically appraising information, the students present learning issues for small group discussions; each student presents at least one learning issue as a completed critically appraised topic. An additional didactic hands-on session to reinforce the skills of searching for the evidence is included as part of the focused “preparing for residency” month for all fourth year students. A fourth-year EBM elective, centered on topics that arise from Internal Medicine morning report and ward rounds, is also offered.