2007 Award Recipient
Past award recipients

 

The General Preventive Medicine and Public Health Residency at the University of Michigan School of Public Health (UMSPH) is recognized for their extraordinary efforts in advancing education in prevention and public health.

 

The Outstanding Educational Program of the Year Award, honors innovative programs, departments, or academic institutions for their involvement in advancing undergraduate or graduate medical education in prevention and public health which furthers students interest in the disciple.

 

The current preventive medicine residency was re-instituted in 2000 at the UMSPH after an approximate ten-year hiatus in operation. The program confers an MPH in either epidemiology or health management and policy, followed by highly structured practicum experiences at state and local health agencies. The residency is primarily supported by funding from the state health department with additional support from federal grants and select host practicum sites. The residency directed by Dr. Matthew L. Boulton, recipient of the 2005 ATPM (Now APTR) F. Marian Bishop Outstanding Educator of the Year Award. As the Associate Dean for Public Health Practice in the School, Dr. Boulton and his leadership have been a source of great pride for the University. Their Residency Advisory Committee has been chaired since the program started by Dr. Ronald Davis, Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the UMSPH and President-elect of the American Medical Association. In a relatively short period of time, the residency has greatly strengthened its administrative and programmatic infrastructure and has increased the number of residents entering the program each year from two to four. Through work of the PMR staff and faculty over the past year the PMR has expanded to include three new practicum sites located largely in underserved, ethnically diverse, Michigan communities, and two additional academic tracks; a new curriculum offering in environmental health sciences will be an option for the 2007 cohort of residents for the first time. Graduates of the program now fill key public health positions as Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, senior medical epidemiologist, and local health department medical directors, among other positions. The School is proud of the residency's 100% completion rate, as well as its residents' 80% pass rate for the preventive medicine board certification examination.

 

In addition, the PMR has been tremendously successful in garnering support and participation from UMSPH faculty. Twelve tenured faculty members are currently associated with the PMR and three of our departmental chairs serve on the Residency Advisory Committee. There are also twelve public health practitioners who serve as affiliated faculty for the program including the state's Surgeon General, the Chief Medical Executive for the state health department, three local health department directors, and the Executive Director of the Michigan Public Health Institute.

 

They consider the preventive medicine residency to be a core component of their School's educational mission in producing highly trained physicians to work in local, state, and federal public health agencies. Despite not having any HRSA preventive medicine residency funding support and in an era when several prominent PMRs have closed down, this program has experienced tremendous success in its six years of operation and continues to grow due to the strong leadership of Drs. Boulton and Davis and the outstanding support of PMR staff and affiliated faculty.

 

 

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