Preventive Medicine/Public Health Residency Program

About

The Public Health Residency Program is located within the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Madigan Army Medical Center and produces graduates fully competent in general and military-specific public health functions. Program graduates are able to serve as Chief, Preventive Medicine at the installation level and perform duties as a Public Health Emergency Officer. The Residency Program emphasizes formal academic education in public health, preventive medicine and occupational health clinical experiences, public health program management, as well as training in disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, risk communication, and original research.

The Public Health Residency Program at Madigan is the only installation-based preventive medicine residency program sponsored by the Department of Defense. Joint Base Lewis-McChord has approximately 36,668 Soldiers, 53,033 Dependents, 11,324 civilians for a total of approximately 100,000 patients seen at Madigan who comprise the community directly served. The residency program emphasizes the clinical, operational and management aspects of preventive medicine practice at a large installation in which we serve as the installation health department.

The Public Health Residency is two years in length, following a clinical internship of at least 11 months of clinical rotations. Residency academic training includes completing a Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree from the University of Washington School of Public Health. Residency clinical training in both years takes place at Madigan and other locations. Training includes clinical epidemiology, communicable and chronic disease control, environmental health, occupational medicine, health promotion, health services planning and evaluation, and automated health data management for public health practice and research. Residents are trained in both the military and civilian aspects of public health and preventive medicine. An affiliation agreement with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department assures a challenging training experience at a supporting institution that is considered a leader in the United States.

Clinical Responsibilities

The Public Health Department provides clinical preventive services primarily involving Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Tuberculosis and Communicable Disease Control, Tobacco Cessation, Occupational Medicine, Travel and Deployment medicine. In addition, residents actively participate in the Preventive Medicine Consultation Service to Madigan (both inpatient and outpatient), JBLM (I Corps, Special Forces, and Rangers, 62nd & 446th Airlift Wings) and supported installations in the region (Yakima Firing Center, Sierra Army Depot, Calif. and Alaska).

Rotations

The residency strives to identify the best training available in various aspects of public health. The Practicum year (PGY-3) is primarily composed of 12 monthly rotations involving clinical preventive medicine services, occupational medicine, research and public health practice. Additionally, residents are provided the opportunity to rotate through a local health department and consider an overseas military research project. Interspersed throughout the final year are numerous training courses, to include:

• Military Preventive Medicine Course (6A-F5) Field Training Exercise, Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.
• Public Health Program Management (6A-F6), Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.
• Management of Chemical and Biological Casualties Course (Aberdeen Proving Ground/Ft. Detrick, Maryland).
• Medical Effects of Ionizing Radiation Course, Madigan Army Medical Center, JBLM, Washington.
• Environmental and Operational Medicine Course, U.S. Army Institute for Environmental Medicine, Natick, Massachusetts.
• Fundamentals of Occupational Medicine Course, (6H-F20), Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.
• Arctic Light Fighter Cold Weather Training and Installation Preventive Medicine rotation, Ft. Wainwright, Alaska.
• Basic Risk Communication Course, US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, APG, Maryland.

Residents also attend the Tropical Medicine Course, a four-week intensive review of infectious disease taken at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences upon completion of the residency.

Research

Residents will complete a research project during their final residency year which addresses a current public health problem in the JBLM community. The residency faculty support a broad based research program which emphasizes the surveillance of emergent health problems in the JBLM military population, the design of new public health assessment techniques and health promotion programs.

Faculty

The residency program faculty is comprised of board certified physicians in the subspecialty areas of Public Health & General Preventive Medicine and Occupational Medicine. Faculty are derived from the Preventive Medicine Department, Regional Health Command-Pacific, local public health agencies and augmented by military consultants in health policy and academic teaching assignments. In addition, faculty from the University of Washington participates in the program.

There are positions for a total of eight residents in the residency program, four at each year level.