Career pathway

Medicine & Health Sciences

Apply mathematics to clinical research, public health, epidemiology, diagnostics, and healthcare decision-making. This is what a Grade 10 student actually learns on the CMP Medicine pathway.

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Pathway insight

Why mathematics belongs in medicine

From reading a blood-pressure chart to interpreting a clinical trial, medicine runs on numbers. Students see early that being a good clinician means being a confident reader of data.

From topic to bedside

Every unit connects a mathematical idea (rates, probability, regression) to a real clinical use: mortality rates, herd immunity, screening accuracy, heart-rate zones.

Portfolio, not just tests

Each term ends with a portfolio task, a short professional-style report that shows the student can apply the mathematics, not just answer questions on it.

What students learn: Grade 10 Health & Medicine Course Planner

Four terms, each anchored to a real area of medical practice. Four sample topics from every term are shown below.

Term 1

Medical Mathematics Foundations

Assessment Task 1

Sample topics

What is Health and Wellbeing?
Indicators of Health
Measuring Population Health
Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates

Clinical insight: Differentiating between a mathematical population (e.g., all individuals in a country) versus a sample (e.g., individuals in a local clinic) when checking health indicators.

Term 2

Vaccination, Obesity & Health Trends

Assessment Task 2

Sample topics

The Immune System
Communicable Diseases
Vaccines and How They Work
History of Vaccination

Clinical insight: Defining independent and mutually exclusive medical events (e.g., exposure to an infectious pathogen versus vaccine immunisation status).

Term 3

Medical Screening, Risk & Genetics

Assessment Task 3

Sample topics

Purpose and Principles of Screening
Early Detection vs Diagnosis
Common Screening Tests (e.g., Cancer, Newborn)
Public Health Guidelines

Clinical insight: Organising a screening population into a mathematical contingency table (two-way grid) to separate true clinical status from diagnostic test results.

Term 4

Heart Rate, Recovery & Disease Modelling

Trial Examination & Final Examination

Sample topics

Physiology of Heart Rate
Measuring Heart Rate (Resting, Maximum)
Factors Affecting Heart Rate
Target Heart Rate Zones

Clinical insight: Utilising percentiles, quartiles, and the Interquartile Range (IQR) to establish healthy resting heart rate baselines within a patient population.