Welcome to The Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Program

Welcome to the University of Pennsylvania Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) Residency Program website. The OEM Residency is housed in the Department of Emergency Medicine and supported by core and adjunct faculty, the department chair, GME leadership and staff, program coordinators, as well as other institutional support. The program has been in existence at UPENN since 1999, after being initially housed at Thomas Jefferson Medical Center (1997-1999). This unique, innovative, train-in-place OEM Residency was created in response to the National Academy of Medicine’s call in 2000 to develop new routes to OEM certification.

With 157 graduates as of July 2021, this program is designed to train mid-career physicians who desire formal training in occupational medicine, and it has expanded to train recent medical school graduates as well. The program, with measurable outcomes, prepares trainees for the comprehensive practice of occupational medicine in a variety of settings including academia, hospital based clinics, free-standing occupational medicine practice, private practice, corporate settings, public health programs, governmental agencies and legal or regulatory authorities. It is designed to provide structured, supervised training and experience to ensure that residents achieve competency in the areas required of the American Council on Graduate Education (ACGME), the American Board of Preventive Medicine Examination in Occupational Medicine (APBM-OM) and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) for the specialist practice in OEM. Program graduates contribute to moving the field of OEM and comprised ~ 8% of the new American Board of Preventive Medicine diplomates over the past decade. Graduates scored competitively on the certifying examination, achieved all milestones, expressed satisfaction with training and were geographically dispersed, representing every region of the United States. Most practice outside of the 25 largest standard metropolitan statistical areas, and more than 95% remain in the field.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our program. We hope that you enjoy exploring our website.