Training the Next Generation of Occupational & Environmental Medicine Physicians

Details

• Personal Author:
  McKenzie JG
• Description:
  The University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) Training Program, in existence since 1997, is the largest civilian OEM program in the nation. It is designed to provide midcareer physicians and recent medical school graduate physicians providing structured, supervised training and experience to ensure that residents achieve competency in areas required of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the American Board of Preventive Medicine Examination in Occupational Medicine (APBM-OM) and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) for the specialist practice in OEM. Graduates practice in a variety of settings including federal, state and local government, not-for-profit, industry, academia, business, labor organizations, hospital based clinics, free-standing OM practice, private practice, corporate settings, public health programs, and legal or regulatory authorities where they take leadership roles. This unique, innovative, competency-based, train-in-place program, with measurable outcomes, created in response to the call of the National Academy of Science in 2000 to develop new routes to OEM certification, has helped address the national shortage of formally trained OEM physicians available to care for the nations' workforce. Qualified applicants complete at least 1 clinical year and have a Master of Public Health or equivalent degree, or a plan for completing the degree before graduation, in keeping with ACGME requirements. There are two tracks: Internal Track (IT) and External Track (ET). The ET, train-in-place track, helps overcome barriers that deter otherwise motivated physicians from specialist training. ET residents work full-time in OEM at an approved clinical training site (CTS) supervised by an ABPM certified physician. IT residents, more recent medical school graduates, rotate at the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) and affiliated hospitals, governmental agencies and industry. The IT was expanded over this grant period graduating six Internal Track residents, more than the combined number trained during the other years since program inception. There are two interrelated components, the applied component at the CTS and the didactic component that consists of monthly 3-day sessions at UPHS: 12 sessions during the first year and 5 during the second year. Both components work in tandem to allow acquisition of the ACGME milestones, program and ACOEM competencies, and success on the certifying examination. Faculty are national experts in the specific area they teach and are ABPM diplomats. During this grant period, the program received a 10-year accreditation from the ACGME, the longest period of accreditation given by this body. The letter noted that the program demonstrated substantial compliance to ACGME and Institutional Requirements. We trained 37 residents surpassing the goal of 30, bringing the total graduates to 143. Our graduates achieved all milestones, expressed satisfaction with training and continue to score higher on average than other residency trained physicians. Graduates are geographically dispersed, representing every region in the USA with most of this diverse workforce practicing outside the 25 largest standard metropolitan statistical areas. More than 95% have remained in the field. This innovative program contributed to 8% of the new ABPM-OM diplomates over the past decade and has revolutionized OEM residency training. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Education Health Personnel Occupational Health Public Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Environmental Medicine Health Care Workers Medical Personnel Occupational Medicine Programs Physicians Public Health Training Grants
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-19
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20065258
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, T03-OH-008628, 2019 Sep; :1-19
• Contact Point Address:
  Judith Green McKenzie, MD, MPH, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, 3400 Spruce Street, Ground Floor, Ravdin Building Philadelphia, PA 19104
• Email:
  judith.mckenzie@uphs.upenn.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• Performing Organization:
  University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20290630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:489c0e40a964e249b9d00dc027c8dc214b77a2ba7b88ab35d955e9bf4a7144bb709979007fed69e0e17dd9aa6c0b049be62186e98ff533e27043d5bc58993934
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219111/cdc_219111_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 390.17 KB ]