I enjoyed reading Milos Jenicek's book Epidemiology: The Logic of Medicine. I fully agree with Dr. Feinstein's foreword that the author has taken on a formidable task. This is a book rich in concepts and ideas, in methods and explanations, and in its complexity and bountiful illustrations. The book attempts to apply epidemiology in both the clinical world as well as the public health arena. In addition to the traditional coverage of epidemiologic concepts, the author covers a lot of emerging ideas in epidemiology including topics such as meta-analysis, decision analysis, applications of epidemiology in the courts, clinical trials, biological markers, and yes, genetic epidemiology.
Readers of this journal will be pleasantly surprised to find that genetic epidemiology has finally come of age in the epidemiology mainstream. While the coverage of genetic epidemiology in this book is superficial at best, one can at least take comfort that the term is mentioned. The author even attempts a definition of genetic epidemiology (p. 187) and states that "genetic epidemiology is a young but a very promising field with many interfacing domains (p. 188)."
Among the strengths of this book is the richness of the tables, illustrations, graphs, and summaries that the author calls "core concepts." All of these are extremely useful tools for any teacher of epidemiologic principles. While some might disagree with the emphasis or philosophical inclinations of the author, the material remains an important asset in understanding the various facets of epidemiology.
Yet, the extensive coverage of this book could be viewed as one of its limitations. The author uses terms not commonly used in the epidemiology community to describe concepts and ideas. Terms such as diagnosimetrics (diametrics), protopathic bias, pathometrics, pseudo-adaptation, and chagrin analysis are at best marginal to the practice of epidemiology and could be confusing to some readers. There is too much differentiation between classical epidemiology, clinical epidemiology, and clinical research. Epidemiology, after all, is a discipline that can and has been applied in a variety of settings ranging from clinical medicine to public health. The author uses tortuous language in some definitions and explanations. Consider, e.g., his definition of molecular epidemiology (p. 199) as "a domain of study of host (and population) cellular and subcellular characteristics either as possible independent variables in webs and paths of a cause-effect problem or as dependent variables for the better understanding of pathogenic mechanisms within a cause-effect link." While this is a