Beyond biology: a curriculum in methods of analysis for clinicians

Over the past five years a three-month interdisciplinary seminar curriculum for postgraduate physicians entering a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program has been developed. While emphasizing an epidemiologic paradigm of analysis, the format facilitates collegial learning among fellows and faculty from diverse fields in the biometric, social, and management sciences. Questions for discussion are drawn largely from the on-going clinical concerns of the participants. This approach has provided a useful basis for both problem assessment and the development of independent research. Educational strategies and devices from this effort appear to be applicable to other contexts and illustrate ways of exploring beyond the predominantly biological models of contemporary medical education.