Comparison of public health and preventive medicine physician specialty training in six countries: Identifying challenges and opportunities.
BACKGROUND
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
a Department of Defense , Fort Belvoir , VA , USA.
Samuel M
SM
Peik
b UK Council of the British Medical Association , London , UK.
Keerthi M
KM
Mohan
c Hokkaido Center for Mental Health and Welfare , Sapporo-Shi , Hokkaido , Japan.
Toshiaki
T
Baba
d Bordeaux School of Public Health , University of Bordeaux and Bordeaux University Hospital , Bordeaux , France.
Morgane
M
Donadel
e Humanitas Clinical and Research Center , Milan , Italy.
Andrea
A
Labruto
f Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health , University of Toronto , Toronto , ON , Canada.|g Department of Family and Community Medicine , Queen's University , Kingston , ON , Canada.|h Associate Medical Officer of Health , Peel Public Health , Mississauga , ON , Canada.
Lawrence C
LC
Loh
D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D019049:Developed Countries; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D011315:Preventive Medicine / Q000193:education*; D011634:Public Health / Q000193:education*