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Objective: Prior studies on the epidemiology of Whipple's disease are limited by small sample size and case series design. We sought to characterize the epidemiology of Whipple's disease in the United States utilizing a large population-based database. Methods:We queried a commercial database (Explorys Inc, Cleveland, OH), an aggregate of Electronic Health Record (EHR) data from 26 major integrated healthcare systems in the US. We identified a cohort of patients with a diagnosis of Whipple's disease based on Systemized Nomenclature of Medical terminology (SNOMED-CT) codes. We calculated the overall and age, race, ethnicity, and gender based prevalence of Whipple's disease and prevalence of associated diagnoses using univariate analysis.

An important part of training the next generation of physicians is ensuring that they are exposed to the integral role that research plays in improving medical treatment. However, medical students often do not have sufficient time to be trained to carry out any projects in biomedical and clinical research. Many medical students also fail to understand and grasp translational research as an important concept today. In addition, since medical training is often an international affair whereby a medical student/resident/fellow will likely train in many different countries during his/her early training years, it is important to provide a learning environment whereby a young medical student experiences the unique challenges and value of an international educational experience. This article describes a program that bridges the gap between the basic and clinical research concepts in a unique international educational experience. After completing two semester curricula at Alfaisal University in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, six medical students undertook a summer program at St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre, in Winnipeg, MB, Canada. The program lasted for 2 mo and addressed advanced training in basic science research topics in medicine such as cell isolation, functional assessment, and molecular techniques of analysis and manipulation as well as sessions on the conduct of clinical research trials, ethics, and intellectual property management. Programs such as these are essential to provide a base from which medical students can decide if research is an attractive career choice for them during their clinical practice in subsequent years. An innovative international summer research course for medical students is necessary to cater to the needs of the medical students in the 21st century.