Overview
The UCSF Public Health and General Preventive Medicine (PHGPM) residency program prepares physicians to become leaders in population health. Graduates pursue careers in public health departments, correctional facilities, academic medical centers, health technology start-ups, global health and private healthcare industries. Regardless of the sector, alumni enter the workforce proficient in disease prevention and control strategies that can be applied across diverse populations and contexts.
Completing the UCSF PHGPM residency program meets the eligibility requirements for American Board of Preventive Medicine board certification. Our residency program adheres to milestones put forth by the American College of Preventive Medicine. We are supported by the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, with additional support from the UCSF Prevention Research Center.
We host two tracks:
- UCSF PHGPM
- Joint Internal Medicine/Preventive Medicine (IM/PM) residency program with Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, California
- Note: We are not currently accepting applications.
Curriculum
An MPH degree from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health is included for all residents. Four tracks are available:
- Epidemiology
- Environmental health sciences
- Health policy and management
- Interdisciplinary
Residents complete rotations in state and county public health departments, occupational and environmental medicine training, quality improvement initiatives, and specialty clinical experiences, such as municipal sexual health and tuberculosis clinics. This training often involves research and clinical quality improvement activities, data analysis, report writing, public speaking, teaching and policy analysis.
Each resident’s curriculum is curated to reflect individual trainee backgrounds and interests. Our goal is to support the in-depth pursuit of a focal topic while encouraging a diverse educational experience. Trainees meet with the program director early in their first year to develop an educational plan. We then find suitable sites and projects to achieve each resident’s learning goals.
Examples of past resident research interests:
- Clinical research using applied epidemiology and biostatistics
- Decreasing the burden of tobacco-related diseases
- Public control and resioid addiction
- Improving healthcare access for underserved communities
- Sexual health equity and HIV prevention
- Improving access to cancer screening for immigrant populations
- Health care reform and designing equitable health policies
- Control and prevention of infectious diseases, including outbreak investigation
- Medical journalism and risk communication
- The use of technology for dementia prevention
- Application of preventive health principles in medical practice (as primary care physicians, fellows and/or specialists)
- Combined Journal Club with UCSF, IM/PM and California Department of Public Health (CDPH) residents.
- Combined Residency Seminars led by CDPH and UCSF faculty.
- UCSF Pathways to Discovery. Available tracks are Global Health, Health Professions Education, Health Equity and Racial Justice, Health Systems Leadership, and Training in Clinical Research.
Core Faculty and Staff
Rosalyn Plotzker, MD, MPH
Program Director
George Rutherford, MD, MA
Associate Program Director
Jim Seward, MD, MPP
Celeste Rogers
Program Coordinator
Contact Us
For questions about the program, contact Celeste Rogers, Program Coordinator