At the recent Preventive Medicine 2010 conference, the ACPM Board of Regents approved an official response to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Preventive Medicine Residency Review Committee’s (RRC) proposed revisions to preventive medicine residency training requirements. The response, which was carefully crafted by the ACPM Graduate Medical Education Committee, urged the RRC to proceed cautiously and not change the core public health competencies of preventive medicine residency training programs.
In its review of the requirements the RRC closely examined the strength of clinical training and the relevance of academic coursework to physician post graduate training in Preventive Medicine. In an accompanying impact statement the RRC proposed several major changes to specialty training, including a minimum of 24 months of training in the Preventive Medicine Residency, the definition of minimum, fundamental clinical skill competencies, and progressive educational experiences within a patient care environment and in ambulatory settings. While the requirements also include weekly didactic sessions in the core public health sciences (e.g., biostatistics, epidemiology, administration, and behavioral health), it no longer requires the acquisition of a Masters of Public Health degree .
ACGME's New Preventive Medicine Training Requirements
ACPM Residency Review Committee Letter
ACPM Examples of Preventive Medicine Training
ACPM Sample Two Year Preventive Medicine Curriculum
ACGME New PM Training Requirements
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Dr. Blaney is a medical epidemiologist within the CDC's Special Pathogens Branch.