Core Principles of Evolutionary Medicine

Grunspan, D. Z., Nesse, R. M., Barnes, M. E., & Brownell, S. E. (2018). Core principles of evolutionary medicine. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 2018(1), 13–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eox025

This study used the Delphi method to help 37 world experts to reach agreement about 14 core principles for evolutionary medicine. The final pdf for this open access article is now available. It should be useful for planning classes and providing an overview of the current state of the field.

Abstract

Background and objectives

Evolutionary medicine is a rapidly growing field that uses the principles of evolutionary biology to better understand, prevent and treat disease, and that uses studies of disease to advance basic knowledge in evolutionary biology. Over-arching principles of evolutionary medicine have been described in publications, but our study is the first to systematically elicit core principles from a diverse panel of experts in evolutionary medicine. These principles should be useful to advance recent recommendations made by The Association of American Medical Colleges and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to make evolutionary thinking a core competency for pre-medical education.Methodology

The Delphi method was used to elicit and validate a list of core principles for evolutionary medicine. The study included four surveys administered in sequence to 56 expert panelists. The initial open-ended survey created a list of possible core principles; the three subsequent surveys winnowed the list and assessed the accuracy and importance of each principle.Results

Fourteen core principles elicited at least 80% of the panelists to agree or strongly agree that they were important core principles for evolutionary medicine. These principles over-lapped with concepts discussed in other articles discussing key concepts in evolutionary medicine.Conclusions and implications

This set of core principles will be helpful for researchers and instructors in evolutionary medicine. We recommend that evolutionary medicine instructors use the list of core principles to construct learning goals. Evolutionary medicine is a young field, so this list of core principles will likely change as the field develops further.