Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the impact of integration of early scientific research training on undergraduate diagnostic medical education. Methods: Undergraduate medical students from Tsinghua University who received 2-year early scientific research training were arranged to received diagnostic medical classes together with the medical students from Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) who received similar preclinical courses except no scientific training. The scores of clinical diagnostic knowledge, clinical laboratory diagnostics, history taking and physical examination were compared between the two groups. Results: The mean age of the 16 students received early scientific research training was 23.5±0.5 years old．There were 70 students from the PUMC group without scientific training. Their mean age was 22.4±0.7 years old. The results showed that mean scores of clinical diagnostic knowledge were significantly higher in the group received early scientific research training（p<0.05）. And no group differences were found for the scores of clinical laboratory diagnostics（p=0.239）, history taking and physical examination. Conclusions: Early scientific research training may benefit diagnostic knowledge acquisition.

Key words: Scientific research, Medical education, Diagnostics