Clinical medicine meets modern epidemiology--and both profit

Abstract

The clinical epidemiology movement can be understood best through the work of people who have chosen to call themselves clinical epidemiologists. It has strong ties to both clinical medicine and epidemiology but is distinct from them; it bridges the two disciplines and helps each recognize and use the strengths of the other. Epidemiology has given clinicians strong methods for answering clinical questions, a population perspective on the care of individual patients, and the scientific basis for preventive health care. Clinicians have brought to epidemiology in-depth understanding of the biology of disease, direct experience with epidemiologic variables, and a strong interest in how the results of research will be used. The success of clinical epidemiology are apparent through research, courses, textbooks, and contributions to clinical and public policy. Clinical medicine and epidemiology began together, then drifted apart. Both have suffered from the schism and both can now profit from becoming reacquainted.