Environmentally and occupationally related diseases are responsible for significant mortality, morbidity, and disability in the U.S. These diseases could be prevented by appropriate physician and public health interventions. Medical students at UCSF currently receive some instruction in principles of preventive medicine but do not have adequate opportunity to apply these principles to environmental/occupational diseases. The primary goals of the curriculum development and research program proposed in this application are the following: 1) to provide an integrated curriculum in environmental/occupational diseases at all levels of medical education; 2) to foster research related to prevention of environmental/occupational diseases by students, post-graduate fellows, and faculty; and 3) to evaluate the curriculum development program in a systematic fashion so as to be able to modify it as necessary to ensure quality of educational experience. The proposed curriculum development plan involves the following major components: a) creation of a multidisciplinary advisory committee; b) participation in a subcommittee of the medical school Curriculum and Educational Policies Committee, the Ad Hoc Committee on a Core Curriculum in preventive Medicine, charged with improving the curriculum re: disease prevention; c) provision of Environmental/Occupational Health Abstracts to students at appropriate lectures throughout the preclinical curriculum; d) provision of instructional materials and cases that emphasize the importance of environmental/occupational risk factors for the case-based problem-solving sessions that are being increasingly used throughout the pre-clinical curriculum; e) training of faculty responsible for clinical instruction re: the importance of environmental/occupational risk factors in differential diagnosis and patient management. Research related to prevention of environmental/occupational diseases will be fostered by support of student research projects as well as by the continuation of the candidate's research program in preventable environmentally and occupationally related respiratory diseases. Evaluation of the curriculum development program will be conducted by an experienced health educator who is a consultant in planning and evaluation to the Office of Curricular Affairs of the medical school.
| Blanc, P D; Galbo, M; Balmes, J R et al. (1994) Occupational factors in work-related inhalations: inferences for prevention strategy. Am J Ind Med 25:783-91 |
| Blanc, P D; Galbo, M; Hiatt, P et al. (1993) Symptoms, lung function, and airway responsiveness following irritant inhalation. Chest 103:1699-705 |
