Epidemiology competencies and preventive medicine residencies: Do they mix and map?

Objectives. This article maps the program requirements of the University of Michigan preventive medicine residency (PMR) to the newly established Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Competencies for Applied Epidemiologists in Governmental Public Health Agencies (AECs) to determine the feasibility and utility of using these competencies to assess the training of physician epidemiologists. Methods. The academic and practicum requirements of the PMR are mapped against the 38 AECs for Tier 2, or mid-level epidemiologists. The process of mapping was done by reviewing academic course syllabi/content and practicum tasks to determine how closely they aligned with the AECs. This process allowed us to identify competencies that are relative training strengths and weaknesses of the residency. Results. Overall, the current program requirements of the PMR generally satisfy the AECs, although one competency was not met in either the academic or practicum year, and another was only met in a single, required academic course. The areas in which AECs were fulfilled by many activities in the residency were in domain 1 (assessment and analysis) and domain 2 (basic public health sciences). The areas in which competencies were met by few activities were primarily in domain 6 (financial and operational planning and management) and domain 7 (leadership and systems thinking). Conclusions. We found that the process of mapping an academically rigorous epidemiology training program (the PMR) to the AEC was feasible and useful. It permitted us to identify training strengths and gaps in our program and consider modifications that will strengthen the level of competency of our physician graduates.