Improvement of epidemiology curriculum for medical students of Thammasat University

Abstract

     This survey research used both quantitative method and qualitative method for data collection. Mailed questionnaires were sent to graduated students (from academic year 2001-2005) for quantitative method. Focus group discussion was set for sixth year student at 2005 academic year and 7 staffs for in-depth interview.

    As a result, response rate of mailed questionnaires was 12.5% (36 questionnaires), most of graduated students highly agreed to learning method and duration of learning. They commented that 25 items related to clinical practice were used mostly, 20 items which applied to community work were not frequently used, and 3 items about epidemiologic software were not implemented in any practices (the items from questionnaire). All particizants recommended that the new epidemiology curriculum should be appropriate for clinical practice rather than general health, especially in role model, evidence based medicine, journal appraisal, portfolio, and research practice.

    The authors suggested that the result of this study should be applied in revising learning method development and research.