Preventive Medicine Physician roadmap

Stage 1 of 3 · about 24 weeks

Foundations

Build the science, statistics and public health literacy you need to get into medical school and to think like an epidemiologist from day one.

1. 1

   Biostatistics and data analysis in R

   Nearly every task in this job starts with a question like 'is this rate higher than expected?'. R is on the O*NET software list, and it is how you turn raw counts into evidence.

2. 2

   Epidemiology fundamentals

   Epidemiology is the core method of the field. You need to know incidence, prevalence, relative risk, odds ratio, bias and confounding before you can investigate an outbreak.

3. 3

   Human biology and medical science prerequisites

   Medical schools expect biology, general and organic chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and psychology or sociology. They also underpin your later clinical reasoning about infection, toxins and chronic disease.

4. 4

   Public health systems, law and ethics

   You will work with health departments, regulators and the law (reportable diseases, OSHA, HIPAA). Knowing who has authority to act is part of the job.

5. 5

   Clear writing and speaking for science

   Your top O*NET skills are reading, speaking and writing. You will brief the public, the media and officials, so plain language is a clinical skill.

Then 2 more stages (about 180 weeks in all) with lessons, drills, projects, 6 interview questions with strong answers and free resources.