Residency Program: Academic Training

The two-year residency program at Stony Brook provides both the academic and practicum training required for board certification in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health. The academic training leads to a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, which is awarded by the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, in New York City. Applicants who have an MPH or equivalent degree awarded by another approved institution will also be considered for the two years of practicum training and didactic sessions at Stony Brook. The academic program includes core courses in biostatistics, epidemiology, health services organization and administration, environmental and occupational health, and social and behavioral sciences, with a portion of the credits towards the Columbia MPH taken at Stony Brook.

Courses taught by faculty in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook have been specifically designed for our residents. The course material is related to and integrated with residents’ experiences in medical school teaching as well as with field experiences. The small-group format allows residents to develop a firm foundation in epidemiology and biostatistics and to become knowledgeable and adept in the application of computers to the health care field. Courses are given in health promotion and disease prevention, in public health law, and in interpersonal and communication skills. All residents also complete a course in occupational medicine and have the additional opportunity for a field experience at Stony Brook’s occupational medicine clinic. Weekly seminars provide a forum for discussion and updating of knowledge about current theory and practice in specific areas of the field and are complemented by a resident journal club and board review sessions.

In addition to the core courses in biostatistics and epidemiology, which are taken at Stony Brook, and to the core courses in environmental health, sociomedical sciences, and health services organization and administration, which are taken at Columbia, a range of elective courses are available within each of the six divisions of the Mailman School of Public Health:

• Department of Biostatistics
• Department of Environmental Health Sciences – including medical/health physics, occupational medicine, environmental or molecular epidemiology, and toxicology
• Department of Epidemiology – neuroepidemiology, psychiatric epidemiology, and cardiovascular epidemiology
• Department of Health Policy and Management – including health policy, planning, health economics, and evaluation
• The Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health – including maternal and child health and international health
• Department of Sociomedical Sciences – including health promotion and disease prevention