This foundation course exposes first-year medical students to issues regarding the role of the physician in society, followed by issues in the prevention of disease in a population. The student will acquire the lifelong skills to critically appraise and integrate the best evidence into clinical practice through the application of evidence-based medicine and the use of concepts underlying epidemiology and biostatistics, such as sources of error and bias in data, study design and the use of basic statistical procedures in the understanding of the medical literature. 

At the conclusion of the course, students should understand the rationale for and applications and limitations of basic statistical and epidemiologic methods in clinical investigation and be able to apply such skills to the practice of evidenced based medicine. This course provides the foundation for critically thinking about how to practice sound medicine. This course prepares the student for subsequent courses by providing the student with the skills to understand and critically evaluate medical studies. The medical student will acquire the skills to apply the results of scientific studies to the practice of clinical medicine.

Fall Semester

Number of students: 180

Required course for all First Year Medical Students (MS1)

Course Director: Lina Mu, PhD, MD and Alan Lesse, MD