The Preventive Medicine Residency

Practicum (Year 2)

The second year of training, the Practicum Year, provides a set of practical experiences that are carefully coordinated in order to ensure attention to and mastery of the core competencies of Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Experiences may be "block rotation" time commitments, usually 3 months. They may also be "longitudinal experiences" that require a time commitment of 1/2-1 day per week over a semester or year. Finally, there may be individual or collections of experiences that will be event-driven and/or individually planned community interactions.

Each resident, in consultation with the Program Director, Program Coordinator, and Practicum Rotation Directors, will set out well in advance of the onset of the Practicum Year an educational plan for the Practicum Year.

Listed alphabetically, the core rotation sites include:

Eastman Kodak Company – Corporate Medical Department

This site provides case finding and management of health concerns faced by large corporations and their employed populations, increasingly in an international setting. Particular attention will be focused on preventive interventions in industrial settings as well as identification of high-risk states and/or psychosocial barriers to care that may go otherwise unnoticed in an employed population. Disease states of clinical interest may be of occupational or non-occupational etiology. Residents work with, among others, the Eastman Kodak global corporate medical director.

Finger Lakes Poison Control Center

Under the supervision of a board-certified toxicologist and board-certified preventive medicine specialist, residents can gain exposure to a regional poison control center, serving Rochester and the surrounding eight-county area. Additional experiences through this rotation include public health consultations with surrounding rural counties, as well as a university-based environmental medicine referral clinic.

Jay/Orchard Street (School #17) Clinic

An elementary school-based clinic serves adult and pediatric needs for one of the most medically and socially at-risk, urban patient populations in New York State. This community of 3000 households is ethnically diverse (35% African American, 40% Hispanic). DCPM has three offices in this facility and employs a community liaison to facilitate community projects initiated through advice by a community board. This community has been a focus of the Medical Center’s Project Believe, as well as a site for medical students undertaking the required fourth-year Community Health Improvement Clerkships.

Monroe County Health Department Clinics

The county health department conducts proactive preventive medicine and public health surveillance, maintenance, outreach and response activities. It also serves as a health safety net for a large segment of Rochester's uninsured and underserved populations. This Health Department conducts the full range of public health activities typical of a large municipal health department. The Center for Rochester’s Health formally links the University to this agency. Residents work under the supervision of Doctors Andrew Doniger (Health Commissioner) and Nancy Bennett (Deputy Health Commissioner), both highly regarded public health specialists of national stature.

Occupational Health and Rehabilitation

Clinical occupational medicine needs are addressed in a diverse set of employed patients, from over 300 local and regional employers. Surveillance, research or outreach opportunities are also available. Activities are conducted under the supervision of George Anstadt, MD, MPH, past president of the American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

Strong Memorial Hospital

Quality Assurance Consultations focus on maximizing quality and minimizing medical errors among the inpatient and outpatient populations of a 750 bed tertiary care, academic medical center. This site serves not only as the region's specialty referral center, but also as the source of primary care to a significant percentage of the area’s homeless and uninsured. Residents work under the guidance of the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Chief Quality Officer, Robert Panzer, MD, a nationally acclaimed expert in this field.

Strong Preventive Cardiology Clinic/Strong Heart Program

Preventive cardiology clinic is focused on reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease among at-risk outpatients, irrespective of ability to pay. This clinical preventive medicine site emphasizes behavioral and lifestyle modification in addition to preventive pharmacology. Approximately 1000 patients participate in exercise or lifestyle modification programs each week in the cardiac rehabilitation programs affiliated with this clinic. This site, which also hosts a preventive cardiology fellowship, is supervised by Thomas A. Pearson, MD, MPH, PhD, Department Chair of the Department of Community & Preventive Medicine, and Residency Advisory Committee Chair.

Additional Training Sites:

Additional training sites may include the New York State Department of Health (under the supervision of Mary Applegate, MD, MPH) and the Onondaga County Health Department.