Forensic Medicine syllabus in China

Forensic medicine is a branch of medicine and pathology that often deals with medical topics that are related to legal investigations concerning medical cases.
This specialty also deals with medical surveillance and maintenance of public health.

This introductory course provides an overview of several important forensic topics,
including death certification, evaluation of forensic evidence, introduction to use of
forensic information in court procedures, the role of the autopsy, time of death and
post-mortem changes, sudden death, infant deaths, death or injury due to crimes,
several important categories of environmental and mechanical injury, forensic
toxicology, forensic serology, forensic psychiatry, and use of DNA evidence.
Class time will include lectures, discussions, and practice questions to test the
student’s understanding.
The course will not include pathology laboratory time, as it is an overview that is aimed at the level of skill and expertise of general medical students.
For those students that pursue this specialty as a career, further study of the area in detail can be done during specialty training in forensic pathology.

Problem analysis related to forensic topics
Review questions
Research of interesting topics via the internet, textbooks, and medical journals
Final Examination at end of course

Section	Hours
Introduction	0.5
Part I: Forensic Pathology	19
1. Death and Postmortem Phenomena	4
2. Forensic Autopsy	2
3. Mechanical Injury	5
4. Mechanical Asphyxia	4
5. Thermal Injuries	3
6. Medical tangle	1
Part II. Forensic Toxicology	10
1. Introduction	2
2. Common Toxicants poisoning	4
3. Drugs of abuse	2
4. Toxicological Analysis	2
Part III: Forensic Evidence	5
1. Evidence collection guidelines;	1
2. Serology and Immunology	2
3. DNA in Forensic	2
Part IV: Clinical Forensic Medicine	7.5
1. Introduction	0.5
2. Head Injury	2
3. Facial Injury	2
4. Chest Injury	2
5. Abdominal Trauma	1
Part V: Forensic Psychiatry	3
1. Related law of Forensic Psychiatry	1.5
2. Common Psychosis	1.5
Total	45

Internet to access numerous websites about specific forensic topics, using the main subject heading as a search term and these can be introduced during the course
Forensic Pathology, Principles and Practice; David Dolinak, Evan W. Matshes, and Emma O. Lew, Elsvier Inc. 2005