What is clinical epidemiology?
The primary aim of clinical epidemiology is to increase quality of clinical care through the application of epidemiological methods by focusing of the patient and patient outcomes (Merrill, 2013). These methods asses the efficacy of disease diagnosis and treatment in the clinical setting, and also aims to identify the potential consequences a new diagnostic tests or treatment options (Merrill, 2013). In addition, epidemiologists conduct medical screening, in order to identify asymptomatic individuals with disease as eary as possible and may involve a multiple stage process, conducted either selectively or with a mass population ( Merrill, 2013). Epidemiologists must continually ask the following questions:
- Who will be involved in the screenign/testing process?
- How accurate is the screening/testing process ?
- Who will benifit from the treatment?
- What is the inclusion/exclusion criteria?
- How will the patient benefit for the treatment?
- What are the risks involved in the process (Merrill, 2013)
- Who will be involved in the screenign/testing process?
- How accurate is the screening/testing process ?
- Who will benifit from the treatment?
- What is the inclusion/exclusion criteria?
- How will the patient benefit for the treatment?
- What are the risks involved in the process (Merrill, 2013)