epidemiology

/ˈɛpəˈdimiˌɑlədʒi/

Epidemiology is the study of diseases: specifically, how they are caused, how they are spread, and how they are controlled or cured. To be sure, it's a nasty job, but someone has to do it!

The ancestry of the word epidemiology comes from the Greek word epidēmia, meaning "prevalence of disease." Although the actual term didn't come about to describe the study of epidemics until 1802, the Greek physician Hippocrates is called "the father of epidemiology" for being the first to study the relationship between diseases and the environments that influences them. The study of epidemiology covers a wide variety of diseases, including infectious, chronic, and neurological diseases, and even includes the study of injuries.

Definitions of epidemiology

1. noun

   the branch of medical science dealing with the transmission and control of disease
   type of:

   medical specialty, medicine

   the branches of medical science that deal with nonsurgical techniques