Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco Internal Medicine Residency Program
UCSF Division of Preventive Medicine & Public Health
University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health
Highlights
- Partnership between the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Kaiser San Francisco, the UCSF Division of Preventive Medicine & Public Health and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
- One of only six combined IM/PM programs in the country and the only one in the western United States.
- Tuition costs for the Master of Public Health studies at UC Berkeley are covered for PGY-3 year, while also receiving a full resident salary.
- Versatile, customizable training in clinical medicine, applied and translational research, population health, and public health.
- Graduates are board-eligible in both internal medicine and preventive medicine, and pursue careers in clinical research, public health, academic medicine, health policy, and general internal medicine or fellowship training.
- Recent graduates are working at the Centers for Disease Control, various state and federal public health agencies, and academic medical institutions.
Components
- The First and Second Years: very similar to the categorical internal medicine track. Five months of the first two years incorporate aspects of population health. Preventive medicine elective options include rotations in local public health departments, occupational medicine, and research training courses at UCSF. Residents design a research project to be completed at UC Berkeley as part of their MPH degree requirements.
- The Third Year: Residents study epidemiology, environmental health, occupational health, public health and health policy at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, culminating in a Master of Public Health degree. Residents maintain clinical skills through weekly continuity clinic and two months of inpatient rotations.
- The Fourth Year: Residents gain practical experience in public health through rotations at UCSF-affiliated research institutes and state/local health departments. They complete the remaining requirements for internal medicine board certification, including 3 months of inpatient rotations and 2-3 months of electives. Residents may also engage in clinical outcomes and translational research at the KP Division of Research.
Skills Acquired
In addition to clinical skills acquired during their internal medicine training, IM/PM residents will learn how to:
- Critically analyze and interpret study design and data in peer reviewed medical journals.
- Independently conduct and lead clinical research, including selection of appropriate study design, data collection and analysis.
- Investigate a disease outbreak.
- Implement innovative programs to reduce the exposure to risk factors for an illness or condition in a population.
- Conduct policy analysis to assess its impact on the health of a population.
- Design and operate a surveillance system to monitor health status of a community.
- Select appropriate, evidence-based, clinical preventive services for individuals and populations.
- Critically assess and respond to individual and population risks for common occupational and environmental disorders.
- Plan and manage emergency preparedness programs.
- Identify and characterize community health problems.
- Design, implement, and evaluate public health programs, laws and regulations to protect health and ensure the safety of populations.
Is the IM/PM program a good fit for me?
The IM/PM program attracts a diverse cohort of residents who share a common interest in addressing and researching population-level patterns of disease in addition to direct patient care. Examples of IM/PM residents’ interests, research and career goals include:
- Global burden of disease, medical relief and health care in developing countries
- Designing, leading and analyzing clinical research using applied training in epidemiology and biostatistics
- Improving access to health care for underserved populations and addressing population-level determinants of health disparities
- Improving health care quality and delivery
- Health care reform and designing equitable health policy
- Control and prevention of infectious disease, including investigation of epidemics and outbreaks
- Health literacy, medical journalism and mass communication of medical information in public health
- Resident safety and medical education
- Preventive health screening and prevention of chronic disease
- Providing clinical care in ambulatory or academic settings
- Application of preventive health principles in medical practice (as primary care physicians, fellows, and/or specialists)
- Environmental and occupational medicine, toxicology
Faculty
- Dr. James Seward is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF and Clinical Professor of Public Health at UC Berkeley. He is Associate Director of the UCSF-UCB Joint Residency Program in Preventive Medicine and Public Health. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Occupational Medicine. He teaches a course in occupational and environmental medicine at UCB, co-teaches the Preventive Medicine Seminar for residents, and directs a course in chronic diseases for the UCSF Global Health Sciences Program. Dr. Seward has an interest in environmental and occupational exposures, chronic disease prevention and health promotion.
- Dr. George Rutherford is the Salvatore Pablo Lucia Professor of Epidemiology, Preventive Medicine, Pediatrics and History and Director of the Residency Program in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health. He is also Head of the Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Vice Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco and directs the Prevention and Public Health Group within UCSF’s program in Global Health Sciences. Educated at Stanford University and Duke University School of Medicine, he is board certified in pediatrics and general preventive medicine and public health. He has worked primarily in public health, with an emphasis on the epidemiology and control of communicable diseases, both domestically and internationally. He has held a number of positions in public health agencies, including serving as State Health Officer and State Epidemiologist for California, Director of the AIDS Office for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Director of Immunizations for the New York City Department of Health and an EIS Officer at CDC. He has been in academic epidemiology and public health since 1995, where his interests have largely focused on epidemiology and control of infectious diseases of public health importance, and more specifically on HIV infection in low- and middle-income countries. He has a special interest in meta-analysis and serves as the Coordinating Editor of the Cochrane Collaboration’s HIV/AIDS Group. Dr. Rutherford is Principal Investigator of a group of cooperative agreements with CDC to support its Center for Global Health and works on projects in Brazil, Croatia, the Dominican Republic, the Eastern Caribbean, Ghana, Haiti, Iran, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zambia. He serves as an advisor to the World Health Organization and the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV and AIDS, is the immediate past chair the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Epidemiology and was the first Chair of the Department of Veterans Affairs Research Advisory Council. He has also served on the Institute of Medicine’s Board on the Health of Select Populations and has recently chaired Institute of Medicine committees on traumatic brain injury in Iraq and the readjustment needs of military personnel and reservists returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families.
How to Apply:
The IM/PM residency program accepts two residents per year.
Interested students are invited to apply to the combined IM/PM program as a separate and unique program through the ERAS application website. Applicants will find the combined IM/PM program by selecting “Internal Medicine/Preventive Medicine” (as opposed to “Internal Medicine”) from the drop down list of Specialties at the NRMP website. The specific ACGME ID number for the combined program is 751-05-44-011.
Applicants may apply to either or both the categorical Internal Medicine and the combined IM/PM programs offered at Kaiser San Francisco. Please note that the interview process is the same for either track; there is no separate interview for the IM/PM program.
Further details about specific program requirements are available at the American Board of Internal Medicine web site and The American Board of Preventive Medicine.
Training at Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco in the combined IM/PM program was the ideal balance of learning clinical internal medicine in a modern, integrated healthcare system while also experiencing the dynamic world of public health in the populous SF Bay Area. The field of preventive medicine is broad, incorporating concepts of clinical disease prevention and public health. Learning to practice internal medicine in a patient-centered medical home with a technology-forward values taught me how to use the power of population health management for a preventive approach to health. The coursework of the MPH was complemented by project engagement in both the local and state health departments which allowed me to actively utilize my learning. Upon completing my combined training, I was well-prepared to sit for both the Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine board exams. The best part of this residency was the encouragement and support by the program leaders to explore my interests and allow for flexibility in crafting rotations and experiences that would prepare me best for a career of my choosing. It’s exciting that all of our program graduates find unique ways to employ their combined training in their career paths. My training eventually led me to a position as a public health medical officer for the California Department of Public Health, where I work in occupational health and continue to practice some clinical internal medicine at Kaiser Permanente.
Christina Armatas, MD, MPH, Class of 2017