Occupational Medicine Curriculum

The curriculum consists of 1) an academic phase and 2) a practicum phase.

During the Academic Phase (PGY2), the residents are enrolled in coursework at the UIC SPH. Their program concentration is in EOHS with additional core coursework in Interdisciplinary Public Health Sciences (IPHS). They complete a minimum of 42 credit hours. Residents are expected to maintain satisfactory evaluations and maintain a GPA ≥3.0/4. When classes are not in session, PGY-2 residents complete five clinical rotations. They also attend two ½-day clinics per week, one in University Health Service and one in Stroger Hospital of Cook County. The Practicum Phase (PGY3) consists of 13 4-week block rotations including four blocks of clinical occupational medicine, two blocks of administrative occupational medicine (where the resident takes on the role of the “junior” Medical Director in the University Health Services clinic), two blocks of research, and at least one block at a governmental agency such as OSHA or ATSDR. There are four blocks of electives, allowing them to enhance clinical, administrative, and academic skills. Throughout the year, residents spend at least one half-day per week in the University Health Service clinic.

School-Wide Core Requirements (22 semester hours)

  • IPHS 450 – Foundations and Determinants of Public Health (3 semester hours)
  • IPHS 451 – Public Health Policy, Systems and Advocacy (3 semester hours)
  • IPHS 452 – Public Health Planning, Practice, and Evaluation (3 semester hours)
  • IPHS 453 – Public Health Management and Leadership (2 semester hours)
  • IPHS 454 – Quantitative Methods and Analysis I (3 semester hours)
  • IPHS 455 – Quantitative Methods and Analysis II b (3 semester hours)
  • IPHS 456 – Introduction to Research Design for Public Health (1 semester hour)
  • IPHS 650 – Applied Practice Experience (3 semester hours)
  • IPHS 698 – Integrative Learning Experience (1 semester hour)

Required Non-Credit Training

Divisional Core Requirements (16 semester hours)

This concentration is only available to students in the Residency in Occupational Medicine program. Students must complete the School-Wide Core Requirements and a sufficient number of the following courses to attain 42 semester hours of credit.

  • EOHS 401 – Ethics and Justice in Environmental and Occupational Health (2 semester hours)
  • EOHS 402 – Systems Approaches in EOHS (3 semester hours)
  • EOHS 406 – Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (3 semester hours)
  • EOHS 421 – Occupational Health and Safety (2 semester hours)
  • EOHS 495 – Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Seminar (1 semester hour)
  • EOHS 502 – Environment, Toxicology, and Disease (4 semester hours)
  • EOHS 563 – Safety and Health Management Systems (3 semester hours)
  • EOHS 571 – Injury Epidemiology and Prevention (3 semester hours)

Electives

Students must complete sufficient elective hours to bring their total program of study to a minimum of 42 semester hours.

In addition to retaking any of the required rotations from the PGY-2 year (PMR, ER, Tox), opportunities include the following clinical services: UI Health Radiology, Pain Management, Orthopedics, and Ophthalmology.

Required Rotations in PGY-2 (when SPH is not in session)

UIC/Stroger Cook County Occupational Medicine Consult Service
Residents begin to develop a high level of knowledge and skills in the practice of Occupational Medicine and receive exposure to occupational and environmental toxicology. Residents also develop tools for medical-legal consulting for causation analysis as an expert witness.

University Health Service
The overall goal of the four-week rotation is to provide the resident with mentored experience in all aspects of a university hospital-based employee health service.

UIC Sports Medicine/Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
The overall goal of this rotation is to gain expertise in the diagnosis of musculoskeletal injuries and illnesses.

UIC Emergency Medicine – Urgent Care
The goal of this rotation is to provide the resident with a directly supervised experience in acute care. The resident sees both occupational and non-occupational patients, providing the foundation for acute injury management.

UIC Toxicology Rotation
The goal is to learn the fundamentals of medical toxicology, through rounds, participation in didactics, and participation in the weekly outpatient toxicology clinic. The residents are directly supervised by Emergency Medicine and Toxicology attendings. During this rotation, the resident rotates through the Illinois Poison Control Center.

Required Rotations in PGY-3

Administrative Occupational Medicine
The goal of this eight-week (two block) rotation is to provide the resident with a structured experience and to allow minimal supervision to foster independent decision making. During the rotation the resident functions as the “junior” Medical director of the University Health Service and must balance the efficiency of the clinic without sacrificing high quality care, working as an integral part of the interdisciplinary team. By the completion of the second block, residents are provided with the basic knowledge and skill assimilation to serve as a medical director.

Occupational Medicine Specialists (OMS, Ltd.)
The goal of this of this eight-week (two block) rotation is to provide education and mentorship on becoming an Occupational Medicine Consultant to corporate clients, ergonomic assessments, administering both regulated and unregulated drug testing programs, wellness, FMLA and fitness for duty issues. The overall goal of this rotation is to train occupational medicine residents in the delivery of occupational health services to corporate clients and the general community including the pediatric population. Concentra also provides the resident with didactic training on DOT physicals given to the residents as a formal course within the rotation, after which residents may sit for the national certification.

OMEGA Occupational Health
The overall goal of this rotation is to train occupational medicine residents in the delivery of occupational health services to small and medium sized businesses and give the residents opportunities to train in the immediate care center and to spend one half-day in the dermatology clinic.

 

Public Health/Enforcement Rotations (Must complete 1 from the following list):

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Region 5 Office
By the end of the rotation residents will be able to demonstrate understanding of environmental health issues in Region 5, assess the current environmental literature, and communicate findings with stakeholders.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration
The goal of this rotation is to give residents an up-front opportunity to see how occupational health policy is developed and applied at the national level and to enhance their knowledge of public health issues in an occupational health setting. Residents spend two months at OSHA under the supervision of staff occupational and preventive medicine physicians and they participate in the full range of OSHA activities.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
The overall goal of this rotation is to teach residents how to respond to inquiries from employers, employees, and their physicians regarding occupational safety and health issues by participating in the planning, conduct, and completion of worksite health evaluations.

Elective Rotations (up to 4 blocks)

NASA at Kennedy Space Center
This rotation with NASA at KSC provides residents with a supervised overview of all aspects of the Occupational Medicine program at KSC, including administrative, clinical, and industrial hygiene procedures. The resident has an opportunity to become familiar with the work site, job-duties, and hazards presented to NASA personnel. Additionally, they have an opportunity to become familiar with the aerospace medicine services provided to NASA, including medical support for launch and landing programs.

Northwestern Occupational Pulmonary Clinic
Residents spend 2 days a week with Dr. Cohen at the Northwestern Occupational Pulmonary clinic and participate in the assessment of black lung, and other occupation related respiratory diseases.

Stroger Cook County Employee Health
In this rotation, residents work under program graduates Drs. Mariko Limpar and Kim Hargis in health system employee health, covering all employees of the Cook County Health System which includes 3 hospitals and numerous outpatient clinics, buildings and grounds and transportation, among others.

Research

Residents are required to complete a mentored research project addressing an occupational health problem. Research rotations may be taken for up to 8 weeks (two blocks).

Additional Scholarly Requirements

Weekly didactic sessions: throughout the two years of residency, all residents attend the weekly residency didactic sessions and ERC interdisciplinary activities (described below).

Additional Residency Requirements

  • Residents present at least 2 Case Conferences per year in the weekly residency didactic sessions in which they research a challenging patient seen in clinic, present the background, case assessment, based on literature review, and facilitate discussion on case management.
  • Residents present one session per year in the combined Occupational Toxicology conference in conjunction with the Toxicology Fellowship at Stroger Cook County Hospital.
  • Residents participate in the monthly residency Journal Club during the weekly didactic sessions.
  • Residents complete an occupational health research project under the mentorship of a faculty advisor. They identify a hypothesis, design the methods, complete the IRB application, and participate in the data analysis. The resident presents the research findings in three stages over the course of the PGY-3 year in the didactic sessions: literature review, methods, and final results. They receive course credit for the project under the Independent Learning Experience (ILE) requirement in SPH.
  • Residents are required to present a publication quality project at a local or national conference in each year of training. This may include a research project, case presentation, or policy brief.
  • Residents perform literature searches and literature evaluations as part of their patient write-ups when causality between exposure and disease is the clinical issue.
  • Residents are required to participate in one quality improvement or patient safety initiative in University Health Services.