RESIDENCY/FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM: Overview

The Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency/Fellowship Program's goal is to provide comprehensive training for an academic career in the clinical practice of occupational and environmental medicine and in occupational and environmental health research and training. The Program is designed to provide trainees with a sound didactic background in the principles of occupational and environmental medicine while simultaneously providing adequate flexibility for residents to pursue studies in epidemiology, toxicology, biostatistics, health services administration and other clinical specialties. Trainees hold joint appointments in the accredited residency program and as senior fellows in the Department of Medicine. In addition, a joint three-to-four-year training program with the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Residency is offered.

The Program is a joint venture between the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine and the Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine. The Program's clinical activities are conducted at Harborview Medical Center, one of the University of Washington's two main teaching hospitals.

Clinical Opportunities

The Program's clinical component centers on regularly scheduled diagnostic and surveillance outpatient clinics. The multidisciplinary staff, including four full-time attending physicians, an industrial hygienist, enrolled fellows and residents, evaluates approximately 1,500 patients yearly. Additional clinical opportunities are available in specialty clinics including pulmonary, dermatology, neurology, psychiatry and the emergency trauma center. Offsite rotations are arranged with a number of local and regional organizations, including The Boeing Company, The Department of Labor and Industries, The Everett Clinic, Group Health, Valley Medical Center, Washington Poison Control Center, Weyerhaeuser, and The Hanford Environmental Health Foundation.

The Program also serves as a resource for physicians from the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho (WWAMI) region, governmental and regulatory agencies, labor organizations, employers and environmental organizations.

Research Opportunities

Research activities in the Program range across a broad spectrum of topics in occupational and environmental medicine. Major focus is placed on identification of causal associations between environmental factors and disease and the evaluation of strategies for early diagnosis and treatment of occupational and environmental conditions, utilizing biologically-intensive investigation of small, well-characterized populations with exposures of interest. Arrangement may be made for fellows to conduct research under the supervision of university faculty outside the program. Research projects of principal faculty include:

• Worksite smoking cessation and prevention of relapse
• Natural history of asbestos-related disease
• Carpal tunnel syndrome among workers exposed to repetitive motion
• Standardized mortality study of Pacific Northwest firefighters
• Bronchial hyperactivity among irritant-exposed workers
• Prospective study of factors causing back pain disability
• Long-term health sequelae of acute and chronic pesticide exposure
• Neuropsychologic sequelae of solvent exposure
• Health effects of working in the diatomaceous earth industry
• Pesticide health effects
• Efficacy of hearing conservation programs in the construction industry
• Cardiovascular effects of air pollution
• Effects of opioid use in workers’ compensation cases
• Occupational injury and illness in developing nations
• Predicting long-term disability in workers’ compensation cases

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