Welcome to the Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health and Health Informatics Umm Al Qura University, Makkah Al Mukarramah.

 

Epidemiology is a basic medical science with the goal of improving the health of population because early studies in epidemiology were concerned with causes of communicable diseases and this can lead to the identification of preventive methods. The essential role of epidemiology in health was recognized to be the greater use of epidemiological data, concepts and methods in the preparation, updating, monitoring, and evaluation of the work in this field. Epidemiology is more than “the study of.” As a discipline within public health epidemiology provides data for directing public health action. However, using epidemiologic data is an art as well as a science. Consider again the medical model: To treat a patient, a clinician must call upon experience and creativity as well as scientific knowledge. Similarly, an epidemiologist uses the scientific methods of descriptive and analytic epidemiology in “diagnosing” the health of a community, but also must call upon experience and creativity when planning how to control and prevent disease in the community.