Clinical Epidemiology has been increasingly recognized as a basic science of clinical medicine as well as a prerequisite discipline necessary in practicing evidence-based medicine. However, no formal curriculum has been formulated for teaching clinical epidemiology to undergraduate medical students in Japan.
We, as the Education on Clinical Epidemiology Working Group of Japan Society for Medical Education, here propose a curriculum of clinical epidemiology consisting of 15 sessions of 90 minute lectures, small group discussions, and practice. Learning such basic concepts as study design, bias, chance, and confounding factors is to be followed by case-based discussions and practicing on-line reference retrieval using MEDLINE. Our proposal awaits further refinement after its implementation at ambitious medical schools.