1. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
An Introduction by the
Public Health Physicians of
Canada Residents Council
Presented by:
(Insert Name Here)
(Month, DD, YYYY)
(Insert Contact Info Here)

2. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Placeholder
Brief opening video showing
public health physicians and residents discussing their careers
and why it is exciting

3. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Outline
What are Health, Public Health, & Health Care?
What do Physicians in Public Health do?
What is Public Health & Preventive Medicine Residency?
This presentation will cover four topics:
What is health, public health, and health care. How are they related, and how are they different?
What do physicians do in public health
What is the Public Health & Preventive Medicine specialty
And how can you explore a career in public health.

4. WHAT IS HEALTH? WHAT IS PUBLIC HEALTH? WHAT IS HEALTH CARE?

5. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Health is determined by many factors
Medical care
Preventive care
Good treatment
Lifestyle
Socioeconomics
Social attitudes (e.g. stigma)
Government policies }
Not Health Care
Some of these aren’t health care

6. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Health Is a Partnership
Good Health
Lifestyle
Socioeconomics
Social attitudes (e.g. stigma)
Government policies
Access to medical care
Preventive care
Good treatment
Good health is ultimately a partnership between public health and health care. Preventing illness is often the best way to give people healthier lives. But not everything is preventable; we need health care for when prevention doesn’t work.
HEALTH CARE
PUBLIC HEALTH

7. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Courtesy of the Canadian Public Health Association

8. A MEDICAL CAREER IN PUBLIC HEALTH
How to Get Involved
in Public Health
as a Physician

9. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Clinician who includes prevention in work
Public Health in Medicine
Clinician who focuses on preventive health
Public Health Physician
There are three different ways for medical professionals to be involved in public health

10. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Public Health Physician
Medical consultant to a Public Health Department
Infectious disease (e.g. prophylaxis of contacts)
Environmental hazards (e.g. what is the risk to health?)
Chronic disease (e.g. program planning)
Advocacy (e.g. media, to government)
Emergency management (e.g. ensuring health and safety)
Research & teaching
Leading health organizations
Occupational Health
And of course, you can become a public health specialist
Occupational health is a fellowship that can be entered from family medicine, internal medicine, or public health and preventive medicine

11. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Public Health & Preventive Medicine Specialist
Public Sector Public Health
Private Sector
Academia
Non-Governmental Organization
Preventive Medicine Clinician
Local Public Health
Provincial/ Federal/ International Public Health Organization
Pharmaceutical Companies
Teaching Public Health to Medical Students
Research
Occupational Health
Consulting
PHPM Program Director
Administration/ Leadership
Sexual Health
Medical Officer of Health (or Associate)
Administrator/ Manager/ Leader
Full-time Research
Leadership of Community Health Centres
Travel Medicine
Clinic Medical Director
The array of what you can do as a public health physician is huge
Content Expert
Community-focused clinical practice
CAREERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH
Many people work a combination of these too!
Other Possibilities

12. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Lifestyle Issues
Work intensity
Part time, flexible
Multiple careers combined (e.g. clinical practice & local public health)
Most specialists have a 40–50 hour work week
Call
Home call
1 in 2 to 1 in 5 depending on number of colleagues
Call is very light—rare for urgent issues needing after hours response
Public health is a flexible career option, with relatively light call.

13. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Lifestyle Issues
Income
Public sector: $200–300,000 (no overhead)
Researcher: $150–225,000 (no overhead)
Clinician: $250–$350,000 (overhead)
Public sector and academic jobs come with benefits packages

14. PUBLIC HEALTH & PREVENTIVE MEDICINE TRAINING
Introduction to the
Residency Program

15. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Training Components
Basic Clinical Training
5 Years
These are the three major components to PH&PM training in Canada. Different schools will organize/sequence them in different ways.
Five years.
2014 RCPSC training requirements are:
1 year of basic clinical training
4 years of additional training, divided as per below:
Minimum 2 semesters of relevant academic work
Minimum 18 months of PH&PM field placements
Up to 12 months of “other” field placements (e.g. clinical pharmacology)
Up to 18 months of relevant research
Up to 12 months of CFPC/RCPSC clinical training, relevant to PH&PM
Source: w/~edisp/tztest3rcpsced pdf
Academic Work in PH&PM
PH&PM Field Placements

16. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Multiple Training Pathways
These are some of the sequential pathways
First is what University of Calgary does. Segmented clinical, academic, and field rotation components
Longitudinal PH exposure would be limited to academic half-days
Second is University of Toronto. Another approach is to devote the first two years to Family Medicine, including the half-days. Indistinguishable from being in a regular FM residency for those two years.
Not much exposure to PHPM until at least year 3 (and no field rotations until even later, likely).
Note that some programs vary this up by having the Academic in PGY-1, then clinical across years 2-3.
Additionally, most programs now offer some sort of Intro rotation in first year (e.g. in place of an elective block).
Third is UBC
There are just examples. There are many options possible!

17. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Multiple Training Pathways
This is what an integrated pathway looks like
e.g. McMaster
Integrated pathway
Early exposure to PHPM half-days in PGY-1 clinical time
Additional FM requirements completed across PGY-2/3
Academic time begins in PGY-2, extends to 3/4. During this time, mix of half-days.
Earlier exposure to PH field rotations, prior to the completion of clinical or academic portions.

18. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Key Points about Training
Three major training requirements
Clinical Training
Academic Work
PH&PM Field Placements
Mix of requirements can be tailored to career interest
Different routes to completion
With/without Family Medicine
Sequential vs. Integrated pathways
Some programs may suit you better than others!

19. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Placeholder
Residency Programs can add information about their program if they wish

20. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Video Placeholder
Video of specialist discussing their work life

21. QUESTIONS?
Let us know your questions! Speaker is encouraged to put their address into this slide.
To reach Public Health Physicians of Canada Residents Council:

22. PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE AS A CAREER
Contributors
Jasmine Hasselback
PGY-3 University of Saskatchewan
M. Mustafa Hirji (Editor)
PGY-5 McMaster University
Thomas Piggott
PGY-1 McMaster University
Matthew Tennenbaum
PGY-2 McMaster University
Rim Zayed
PGY-4 University of Ottawa
We acknowledge generous funding support provided by the Public Health Agency of Canada, and project management provided by the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada.
Thanks to all those who made this possible!
This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License