Perspectives of clinical epidemiology in Korea

ABSTRACT

The establishment of clinical epidemiology has meant the improvement of the quality and quantity of clinical science because clinical epidemiology has contributed to the process of decision making across the full scope of clinical practice, including diagnosis, treatment, and care, as well as prevention. Epidemiological and statistical methodologies have been used to analyze scientific evidence on clinical problems. The orientation of evidence-based medicine introduced in the mid-1990s is the application of clinical epidemiology to clinical practice for individual patients. The concept of evidence-based medical practice has triggered the expansion of the scope and range of methods of clinical epidemiology. In spite of the global situation, the formal activity in the area of clinical epidemiology in Korean Medical Academic Association is negligible, with few clinical epidemiologists involved. One of several approaches to stimulating the practice of clinical epidemiology in Korea would be to foster clinical epidemiology as a specialization of clinical preventive medicine, which is one of the sub-specialties of preventive medicine in Korea.