Some questions about Preventive/Preventative Medicine?

[LongBeachKid]

First post woo!
Hi everyone, I'm currently a junior undergrad trying to figure out some details about what preventive medicine is.
I want to help people on a larger scale(local-national level?) and I also want to retain the ability to treat people directly (main reason for becoming a physician).
From what I understand, preventive medicine will enable me to do this. Is that true?

what type of specialty is this exactly?
I'm confused by specialty stuff and how all that works. By looking at school websites it seems like preventive medicine is underneath Occupational Medicine or Environmental Medicine. However, what confuses me is that for graduate specialties listed by MSAR those are not listed.

how long is/are the residency/residencies?

what is the difference between an M.D MPH and M.D Ph.D in this field(what types of opportunities are there)?

do you know of any schools with good preventive medicine programs?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Ismet]

I haven't looked at an MSAR in almost 5 years, but I don't think it lists all of the possible specialties. A full list can be found on the ERAS website. https://services.aamc.org/eras/erasstats/par/

You don't need to specialize in Preventive Medicine in order to treat people directly as well as on a larger scale. Everyone practices preventive medicine to an extent, you don't need an MPH or PhD in public health to do that. My understanding is that you can also become certified in preventive medicine through different avenues.

There are 3 areas: Public Health/General (http://www.acpm.org/), Occupational/Environmental (http://www.acoem.org/), and Aerospace Medicine (http://www.asma.org/).

Most (all? idk) programs are 2 years, but you have to complete an intern year in a primary care residency (family med, internal med, pediatrics). So 3 years total of post-grad training. Not sure if all programs result in an MPH, but I'm sure that would be easy to find out.

List of preventive medicine residency programs: https://services.aamc.org/eras/erasstats/par/display8.cfm?NAV_ROW=PAR&SPEC_CD=380

 

[flapjack3d]

I haven't looked at an MSAR in almost 5 years, but I don't think it lists all of the possible specialties. A full list can be found on the ERAS website. https://services.aamc.org/eras/erasstats/par/

You don't need to specialize in Preventive Medicine in order to treat people directly as well as on a larger scale. Everyone practices preventive medicine to an extent, you don't need an MPH or PhD in public health to do that. My understanding is that you can also become certified in preventive medicine through different avenues.

There are 3 areas: Public Health/General (http://www.acpm.org/), Occupational/Environmental (http://www.acoem.org/), and Aerospace Medicine (http://www.asma.org/).

Most (all? idk) programs are 2 years, but you have to complete an intern year in a primary care residency (family med, internal med, pediatrics). So 3 years total of post-grad training. Not sure if all programs result in an MPH, but I'm sure that would be easy to find out.

List of preventive medicine residency programs: https://services.aamc.org/eras/erasstats/par/display8.cfm?NAV_ROW=PAR&SPEC_CD=380

Coming from a pre-med, so take it with a grain of salt, but i was pretty interested in preventive medicine for a while:

Yepp all require an MPH. If you already have an MPH going in, they usually make you do work towards another masters degree or more clinical work during the first year.
You can get into these residencies with just an internship year, but some of the more competitive ones basically require a full primary care residency (mayo comes to mind, though hopkins has a few with only an intern year).
I'm not really sure of the actual utility of preventive medicine fellowship/residency if you don't want to do it full time. Contrary to popular belief, preventive medicine CAN be a clinical specialty. You can set up an occupational med clinic anywhere and fill out lots of workers comp forms.
It seems like most graduates go on to be medical directors, city/county/state level public health officers, etc. Dont see a lot of people doing the residency just to practice preventive med part-time.
There are different kinds of residencies btw. Occupational and Environmental Medicine is one of these. I know sinai and harvard and hopkins has this. General preventive medicine is more common. Aerospace is only offered by military institutions (i think).
MD/PhD would definitely be wayyy overkill for this field. Very few people even in academic preventive medicine seem to have both degrees. MD/MPH is just fine (I'd wait until the residency for the MPH personally, since they often pay for you to get it (but some don't. heard hopkins makes you fund your own.))

 

[LongBeachKid]

I haven't looked at an MSAR in almost 5 years, but I don't think it lists all of the possible specialties. A full list can be found on the ERAS website. https://services.aamc.org/eras/erasstats/par/

You don't need to specialize in Preventive Medicine in order to treat people directly as well as on a larger scale. Everyone practices preventive medicine to an extent, you don't need an MPH or PhD in public health to do that. My understanding is that you can also become certified in preventive medicine through different avenues.

There are 3 areas: Public Health/General (http://www.acpm.org/), Occupational/Environmental (http://www.acoem.org/), and Aerospace Medicine (http://www.asma.org/).

Most (all? idk) programs are 2 years, but you have to complete an intern year in a primary care residency (family med, internal med, pediatrics). So 3 years total of post-grad training. Not sure if all programs result in an MPH, but I'm sure that would be easy to find out.

List of preventive medicine residency programs: https://services.aamc.org/eras/erasstats/par/display8.cfm?NAV_ROW=PAR&SPEC_CD=380

Thanks a lot, your reply really cleared a lot up for me.
The residency specialties website and list of programs were also super helpful in understanding how that part works! I also found it helpful in understanding some of the possible residencies combos (family preventive medicine, internal preventive, etc.) !