The School aims to provide introductory and advanced courses in medical statistics and epidemiology, and their application in etiology research and public health.

Modern medical research is becoming increasingly formalized. Today researchers, physicians and health professionals are encouraged to use scientific data, including controlled experiments and well-structured observational data as the source for decision making. Evidence-based medicine is entering into many subspecialties, including public health science.

The School provides participants insight into available critical tools for planning research, for handling data and for interpreting results. Better understanding of scientific medical papers is a goal and it requires not only knowledge of the topic being investigated but also an understanding of the research methods being used. Examples include proper understanding of the meaning of a hazard ratio or a confidence interval and an understanding of the difference between a randomized controlled trial and a case-control study.