Epidemiology for Canadian medical students--desirable attitudes, knowledge and skills.

There is increasing recognition that the concepts traditionally taught by epidemiologists are essential for all medical graduates, most of whom will be clinicians, and not just for the minority who will specialize in population-based disciplines. This paper presents the recommendations of a Canadian conference which considered objectives for teaching epidemiology to medical undergraduates. These objectives are presented as the attitudes, knowledge and skills medical students should acquire. Recommendations concentrate on what should be learned, rather than what should be taught, or who should teach it. It was the concensus that epidemiologists are responsible for assuring that basic epidemiological attitudes, knowledge and skills be acquired, though the subjects need not be taught exclusively by epidemiologists themselves.