To introduce principles of epidemiology as applied to clinical research, emphasizing diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, the measurement of signs and symptoms of health and disease, and the evaluation of diagnostic, treatment and compliance-improving maneuvers.

Objectives: 1) To introduce the clinical epidemiology program and the courses offered; 2) To develop an approach for addressing health research questions using appropriate research methods; 3) To introduce the types of research designs used in clinical and epidemiologic research, including those using primary and secondary sources of data; 4) To understand the threats to the validity of different study designs, and to become familiar with the methods used to enhance the validity of clinical research; 5) To be able to critically appraise a biomedical research article; 6) To be able to write a clinical research protocol.