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Abstract
Rationale: Public health and preventive medicine (PHPM) has been recognized internationally as a physician specialty, but national parallels and differences exist between training contexts. This paper reviews PHPM training and employment in Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA.
Methods: Information gathered from relevant accreditation bodies and literature searches was used to create descriptive profiles of national training demographics and structure and a narrative outlining trends and challenges facing the specialty.
Results: Notable similarities and differences exist between national contexts. Key themes were differences in training strategies and practice scope, specialty stakeholders, certification structure, and funding. Recognition challenges faced the specialty across all six countries. Other challenges included unclear competencies and training strategies and a need for PHPM specialists to highlight their role in combating population health threats. Additional differences existed between comparator countries on the structure of training, funding sources for training programs, availability of training posts, and linkages with other physician specialties.
Conclusion: Highlighting these themes is a first step to fostering training collaborations between PHPM specialist physicians to augment transnational action on global public health challenges and also supports PHPM physician educators with innovative solutions from abroad that might address domestic specialty challenges.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Guillaume Dedet in providing data to an early version of this manuscript and the critical review of the France section provided by Drs. Nadia Oubaya and François Krabansky. The authors also gratefully acknowledge key data provided by the ACGME.
Disclosure statement
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.
Funding information
No financial support was received in the preparation of this manuscript.
Disclaimer
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the US Department of the Defense.
Notes on contributors
Dr. Samuel M. Peik, MD, MPH, is a Preventive and Occupational Medicine Physician, Department of Defense, Fort Belvoir, VA, USA.
Dr. Keerthi M. Mohan, MBBS, MSc, is Speciality Registrar in Public Health and member of the UK Council of the British Medical Association, London, United Kingdom.
Dr. Toshiaki Baba, MD, MSc, is Chief Technical Officer, Hokkaido Center for Mental Health and Welfare, Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido, Japan.
Dr. Morgane Donadel, MD, MSc, is specialist medical resident in Public Health at the ISPED- Bordeaux School of Public Health, University of Bordeaux and Bordeaux University Hospital, Bordeaux, France.
Dr. Andrea Labruto, MD, MPH, is Hygiene and Preventive Medicine Physician and Assistant Health Director, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Rozzano, Milan, Italy.
Dr. Lawrence C. Loh, MD, MPH, is Associate Medical Officer of Health, Peel Public Health, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; Adjunct Professor, Clinical Public Health, at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Lecturer, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
