PVM 721 Infectious Disease and Public Health
Students will become oriented to infectious diseases public health work by joining the State Epidemiologist’s daily activities including outbreak investigation. When an outbreak is not occurring, the student will be involved in an assigned brief research project oriented to review of medical literature and presentation of their findings for critical review by the State Epidemiologist or an analytic project involving a database of cases of a reportable infectious disease such as typhoid fever or meningococcal meningitis. The remainder of time will be spent with field trips (e.g., county TB clinic, restaurant inspections with a sanitarian, tour of state laboratory or Quarantine Station at O'Hare Airport). Lectures on various topics will be provided (e.g., West Nile Virus in Illinois, epidemiology of pertussis, and Outbreak Investigations of many diseases). Specific educational objectives are: 1) to gain basic understanding of public health infectious disease issues; 2) to expose medical students to career opportunities in public health; and 3) to develop an understanding of the local, state, and federal role in surveillance and control of infectious diseases. Prerequisites: none. FA WI SP SU [2 or 4 weeks]

PVM 781 Research in Preventive Medicine
Students may arrange research rotations individually with faculty at Rush. In order to receive credit for such a rotation, the person to whom the student will be responsible must write a letter describing the student's activities, responsibilities, amount of supervision, and the specific dates of the rotation. Credit toward graduation is granted assuming that the research project is ongoing throughout the academic year. Students must submit a proposal to the Office of Clinical Curriculum for approval at least eight weeks before the rotation and must have written approval from the Office of Clinical Curriculum before beginning the rotation. Research rotations are scheduled for a minimum of four weeks of credit with the expectation that the full project will extend beyond the formal course duration. Depending on the proposal, the weeks of credit may or may not apply to the rule of 8-weeks’ maximum credit for coursework in a single subspecialty. This decision is at the discretion of the Office of Medical Student Programs. [4 weeks]