Epidemiology is the fundamental science of public health. Preventive medicine facilitates community health via three-level prevention. This module aims to provide complete and consolidated training in epidemiology, introduce different professional areas of epidemiology, and establish the concept of preventive medicine. This module also provides the national-level course of the prevention of and cure of infectious disease.

This module includes the following six required courses, which account for 12 credits. 

1.   General Concepts of Preventive Medicine (2 credits): This course introduces the concept of three levels and five stages for disease prevention, which includes important and fundamental knowledge of theory and practice in preventive medicine. 

2.   Case Studies in Infectious Disease Control (2 credits): This course provides the training of infectious disease field epidemiology, introduces the epidemic prevention policy in Taiwan, and practices the epidemic field surveillance. This course is instructed by national-level professional lecturers from Center of Disease Control (CDC) of Taiwan.

3.   Epidemiology of Chronic Disease (2 credits): This course introduces the methodology of chronic diseases, which include cancer and cardiovascular disease; provides the experiences of case study and the training of real data management; facilitates understanding of the tools for the screening and diagnosis of chronic diseases, and learning the impact of gene, environment and their interactions on chronic diseases. 

4.   Contemporary Research Topics in Epidemiology (2 credits): This course includes popular topics in epidemiology, which begins with the methodology of epidemiology and followed by the introduction of contemporary and important research findings of infectious and chronic diseases.

5.   Laboratory Diagnosis of Reportable Diseases in Taiwan (2 credits): This course provides the practice of laboratory assays and diagnosis of infectious diseases, which includes a complete introduction of pathogen microbiology, clinical course of a disease, sample collection, and laboratory assay and diagnosis. This course is instructed by national-level laboratory directors from Center of Disease Control (CDC) of Taiwan.

6.   Epidemiologic Study of Aging and the Elderly (2 credits): This course introduces aging and common diseases in the older adults (e.g., dementia and osteoporosis), which includes essential knowledge for responding to the ageing society.

Students completing this module will be equipped with the fundamental knowledge of infectious and chronic diseases. Potential career opportunities include working at governmental epidemic prevention system [e.g., Center of Disease Control (CDC), Ministry of Health and Welfare, and local health bureaus] for policy making, management and execution. Students could also become administrators in industries or research professionals in health-service related fields.