Preventative medicine residency

[Bossman2313]

Hi

I want to go into preventative medicine

Currently I am a PGY-1 Transitional.

How hard is it to get in? Is it too late to apply? What are some things about a general preventative residency that an applicant absolutely MUST know about before going into it?

Thanks

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[CopperStripes]

It is not hard to get in. I'd say one thing you absolutely must know is that it is preventive medicine, not preventative medicine. I know that many deadlines have past for the year; however, since most prev med programs don't use the Match, you may be able to find some with later deadlines.

 

[fantasty]

Agree with previous poster ("preventive" is the appropriate term). Some programs use ERAS, and deadlines may have passed (Johns Hopkins deadline is 12/1, Univ of Rochester is 12/31 - I'm looking into these myself). Although information is in FREIDA, you can also find a full listing of PM residency programs at ACPM.org.

For reference, PM residencies also encompass training programs in Occupational Medicine and Aerospace Medicine.

 

[Dogdaysofsummer]

Have any of you who are considering the residency had any exposure to preventive medicine?

I didn't get any exposure to PM at all during medical school or, of course, during residency. What I have been able to read online sounds very interesting though I have no idea what it would be like in reality.

 

[fantasty]

Have any of you who are considering the residency had any exposure to preventive medicine?

I didn't get any exposure to PM at all during medical school or, of course, during residency. What I have been able to read online sounds very interesting though I have no idea what it would be like in reality.

I think ACPM is the most reliable source of information. But, I also know that there is a LOT of variety in the programs. Some are very focused on public health and adminstration, whereas some are very clinical. For example, some program will assume (formally require) that you have completed a full primary care residency (rather than the universal rule of requiring a PGY-1 year only).

One of the nice aspects of ACPM is that you can join their Resident Physician Section as a resident in any field (I'm in IM, not PM yet). I attended their national conference last Feb, and found that it was a good way to get more direct exposure to the field. The one aspect about the conference that I didn't like was that their were a number of concurrent subtracks meeting, so it was often difficult to choose what sessions to go to (since I'm not "differentiated" into a particular area, like occupational med, "lifestyle medicine", public sector, global health, informatics, industry, etc).

I'm on some committees for the RPS this year, and one goal is to have more outreach to medical school campuses (there's a regional liaison for each section of the country - if you want, I could PM you some contact information). But, I still think it's hard to get information to residents in other disciplines who have never been told that PM was a career option.

 

[zekashis]

would a preventive medicine specialty comes into contact with a patient? i'm an MD from Indonesia.. pursuing my MPH in 2013 hopefully.. .. i am quite interested in preventive medicine. the USMLE, however, is one major shortcoming of taking a residency program.. is it possible to study preventive medicine residency without undergoing USMLE?

 

[collins5428]

I didn't get any exposure to PM at all during medical school or, of course, during residency. What I have been able to read online sounds very interesting though I have no idea what it would be like in reality.

 

[Dogdaysofsummer]

I think ACPM is the most reliable source of information. But, I also know that there is a LOT of variety in the programs. Some are very focused on public health and adminstration, whereas some are very clinical. For example, some program will assume (formally require) that you have completed a full primary care residency (rather than the universal rule of requiring a PGY-1 year only).

One of the nice aspects of ACPM is that you can join their Resident Physician Section as a resident in any field (I'm in IM, not PM yet). I attended their national conference last Feb, and found that it was a good way to get more direct exposure to the field. The one aspect about the conference that I didn't like was that their were a number of concurrent subtracks meeting, so it was often difficult to choose what sessions to go to (since I'm not "differentiated" into a particular area, like occupational med, "lifestyle medicine", public sector, global health, informatics, industry, etc).

I'm on some committees for the RPS this year, and one goal is to have more outreach to medical school campuses (there's a regional liaison for each section of the country - if you want, I could PM you some contact information). But, I still think it's hard to get information to residents in other disciplines who have never been told that PM was a career option.

Thanks for the informative reply. I've already graduated from residency which is too bad as the Resident Physician Section would have been interesting. I would love to go to the national conference next year. If I do end up deciding to really pursue this I think I will shell out the money for the conference.

It is so great to hear about the outreach to med school campuses. I think if I would have had a bit of exposure or education to this field earlier I would have pursued it from the start though I'm sure completing a residency couldn't hurt my chances of acceptance to a quality PM residency. Is the regional liaison a medical student, resident or attending?

 

[trixmd]

Howdy -

I'm a PM doc who trained at UNC and currently a CDC EIS officer. I sort of fell in to the specialty as I was a Navy flight doc and was really attracted to the idea of population health. (We do a lot of our care according to protocols and quasi-evidence based medicine.. But that's a whole different story.) After residency I went back to the Navy (there are a couple military residencies, but I was sponsored to train at Chapel Hill) and because of h1n1 got to do some clinical work, some policy work, and some research. Currently I'm a CDC EIS officer (again sponsored by the Navy). Its not a bad gig - I've investigated a couple of really interesting outbreaks. Because of program requirements I've presented at national and regional conferences and have a couple papers in the works, so I'm much better at writing and speaking. Most of my physician classmates aren't trained in prev med but rather primary care, but still more than qualified to be medical epidemiologists. Usually EIS grads can end up working for one of the federal or state health agencies, but budget woes make this year a crap shoot. When I go back to the Navy I"ll be working in a research capacity but seeing clinic (likely occ med or acute care) one day a week.

WRT applications, although I was chief resident at my program, things have changed with SOPHAS, so I'm not too savvy about that aspect.

I don't frequent this site often, but will try to be more diligent in the near future. I'm not sure if I'm going to ACPM this year, but it's usually time well spent.

 

[fantasty]

I'm applying this year (a little late in the cycle, but still before some program's deadlines). My research mentor is a member of ACPM (as am I), but he pointed out that things are more precarious this year than ever (with regard to funding of residency positions).

I'm curious what the thought of recent grads about whether there is a concern at the residency program level that funding could be cut completely. I'm also curious about the feeling within the CDC or NIH.

 

[Dogdaysofsummer]

Has anyone heard of someone taking a few years off after working as an attending and then getting into a preventive medicine residency?

 

[fantasty]

Has anyone heard of someone taking a few years off after working as an attending and then getting into a preventive medicine residency?

Yes - that's not unheard of. Some of the PM programs I looked at tend to have a majority of trainees who are boarded in another discipline. I don't think there's any reason that you couldn't work for awhile. I was debating whether to save some money and pay down my debt before going back to a resident's salary.