Many educators have argued long for the inclusion of evolutionary biology in health education. But despite decades of research illustrating the relevance of evolutionary biology in understanding health and disease, evolutionary medicine has yet to be incorporated in most health curricula. Arguably the biggest obstacle has been in determining where and when in the education process that it should be introduced: in pre-medical undergraduate courses, as part of standard curricula in medical/veterinary/public health schools, as continuing medical education credits, or others. Our present survey aims to 1) assess in detail the level of education in evolutionary biology that current physicians/veterinarians/nurses/public health practitioners have and current students in these disciplines are receiving, 2) assess opinions of physicians/veterinarians/nurses/public health practitioners and students in these disciplines on when and where training in evolutionary medicine would be most appropriate. This is accomplished using 4 separate online surveys (depending on profession).

Each survey should take less than 15 minutes to complete. Inclusion criteria include all adults (18 years of age or older) who are either current students or trained professionals in medicine, nursing, public health and veterinary medicine. For those who choose to, participants may enter their email address at the end of the electronic survey. For every 250 surveys completed, one email address will be randomly drawn. This person will be contacted via email for their address, and an Apple iPod Shuffle will be mailed to them. All data are being collected electronically via a secure website (https). No names are being recorded, although email addresses will be (for those interested in entering the drawing for a free Apple iPod Shuffle). For those who do not wish to answer questions about ethnicity, nationality or religion, they can simply skip those questions.

For physicians and medical students: http://www.research.net/s/evmed1

For veterinarians and veterinary students: http://www.research.net/s/evmed2

For nurses and nursing students: http://www.research.net/s/evmed3

For public health practitioners and students: http://www.research.net/s/evmed4