Montefiore Health System (MHS) today announced receipt of a three year, $1.2 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant will help to develop and implement a new preventive medicine (PM) residency program, woven into an existing residency in family medicine. This four year program, one of only a few in the U.S., will be the first to have an integrative health focus. It will launch in July 2016 with two residents.

This program will advance evidence-based population and integrative health training and practice at primary care sites that care for underserved communities in the Bronx and beyond. 

"In creating this new program, Montefiore will collaborate with the Masters of Public Health Program (M.P.H.) at Lehman College (CUNY), Institute for Family Health, the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Preventive Medicine residency will be situated within the Department of Family and Social Medicine at Montefiore.  

“This grant from HRSA aligns with the goals of Montefiore’s approach to population health and is an important example of having a close relationship between translational science and education,” said William Jordan, M.D., M.P.H. director of the new PM residency program, co-director of Medical Student Education in the Department of Family and Social Medicine at Montefiore, assistant professor in the Department of Family and Social Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “We are delighted to develop the Preventive Medicine residency program and to welcome our first residents in just a few months.” 

Participants will also earn an M.P.H. degree through the residency training program which will give them a strong background in epidemiology and skills in data analysis. Each resident will complete a social medicine project that addresses the needs of a vulnerable community 

“National changes in healthcare delivery address the importance of educating primary care physicians to help their patients adopt healthy behaviors,” said Peter Selwyn, MD, M.P.H., chair of Family and Social Medicine at Montefiore Health System and at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “This country has a primary care shortage, so we need doctors engaged in creative ways to deliver quality health care to patients, their families and our community. Primary care is the foundation of larger changes occurring in the health care system and training doctors in preventive medicine will help bridge these worlds.”