Program Contacts

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Important Information

The Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency Training Program at the University of Alberta for Canadian Medical Graduates (CMGs), Public Health and Preventive Medicine including Family Medicine (PHPM_FM), includes a two-year placement with Family Medicine, typically the first two years of the training program. You do not need to apply to Family Medicine separately; this will be considered in your application and interview.

All applicants to our residency program at the University of Alberta are required to complete the Casper (Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics) test, to assist with our selection process. Successful completion of Casper is mandatory in order to maintain admission eligibility. Casper is an open-response, situational judgment test that evaluates aspects of applicants’ social intelligence and professionalism such as ethics, empathy, problem-solving and collaboration. For more information on the test, go to https://takealtus.com/casper/. Casper scores are only valid for a single admissions cycle and for the test type for which you have taken the test. For example, if an applicant took the Canadian Post Graduate Medical Education test for the CaRMS Round 1 match, the same Casper score will be considered for the Round 2 match. 

Your Casper assessment result is sent directly to our program/CaRMS from Acuity Insights. Please ensure that you give Acuity Insights permission to share your results with CaRMS.

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Return of Service

There are no return of service requirements at the University of Alberta.

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General Instructions

Program application language: English

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Supporting Documentation / Information

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Review Process

Applications submitted after file review has opened on March 17, 2026

Supporting documents (excluding letters of reference) that arrive after file review has opened  on  March 17, 2026

Letters of reference that arrive after the unmasking date on March 17, 2026

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Interviews

Dates:

• March 25, 2026

Selection Criteria

Residents are selected on the basis of their academic record, personal letter, letters of reference, interview, and relevant experiences.

Program goals

Upon completing the residency training program, residents will be able to function effectively as a Public Health and Preventive Medicine specialist in a variety of career settings including government, academia, non-governmental organizations and community-oriented clinical practice. In particular, Public Health and Preventive Medicine residency graduates will be able to:

• Assess the health needs, concerns, threats and capacities of a population

• Investigate potential or existing health issues occurring in a population
  
  
• Undertake disease and disease risk factor surveillance
  
  
• Investigate and manage disease outbreaks and public health emergencies
  
  
• Plan, implement and evaluate health programs, policies, and other strategies to deal with health needs, concerns, and issues
  
  
• Be involved in addressing various determinants of health

• Assess socio-economic and political realities and be able to advocate for and take appropriate action to improve health in the light of that assessment
  
  
• Communicate, consult, collaborate and build partnerships as appropriate with the public, physicians and other health professionals, other sector professionals, volunteers, service provider agencies, policy-makers, elected and appointed officials, and the media to address health issues

• Demonstrate ethical attitudes and behaviour and a critical approach to ethical issues arising from the practice of, and research in public health and preventive medicine

• Contribute to the body of knowledge of public health and preventive medicine through scholarly activities, including research

• Demonstrate leadership and management skills with respect to the above competencies

Selection process goals

A successful applicant for our Public Health and Preventative Medicine program will need to have:

• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Professionalism
• Understanding of Public Health work
• Strong sense of ethics
• Ability to juggle multiple responsibilities
• Interest in working as part of a team and working in a team-based setting
• Interests in collaboration
• Leadership skills
• Ability to work independently
• Self-motivation
• Demonstrated interest and basic knowledge in Public and Population Health

File review process

Evaluation criteria :

Elective criteria

Interview process

Interview evaluation criteria :

Information gathered outside of CaRMS application

Specifically, we may consider:
Social interaction during program related events
Communication with program administration
Social media
Unsolicited reference letters
Unsolicited email references
Unsolicited verbal information on a candidate's prior performance
Unsolicited feedback from colleagues and co-workers

Ranking process

The behavior(s) exhibited below during the interview process may prevent an applicant from being ranked by our program :
Unprofessional or inappropriate behavior   
Did not attend interview   
Interview performance was not competitive   

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Program Highlights

The University of Alberta Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency Program aims to focus on giving residents the practical experience they need to develop skills to work in all areas of public health and preventive medicine.

Strengths

• A focus on the front-line practice of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in a variety of public health settings (Urban, Rural etc)
• Close/frequent contact with preceptors
• Wide range of available training options; flexibility to meet individual interests of residents
• Continual exposure to Public Health and Preventative Medicine through Academic Half Day
• Program Director and Assistant Program Director with experience in both public health practice and academia, with non communicable disease and communicable disease expertise, and with local/provincial and international experience. 
• 100% pass rate on Royal College exams in recent years
• A diverse mix of resident backgrounds and experience through having both Canadian and International medical graduates
• Opportunities provided for training tailored to resident interests (e.g. training certifications in addictions medicine, obesity medicine, etc during electives).

Other Key Features

The program has training options with the Occupational Medicine residency program and the School of Public Health.

Common Clinical Encounters

• Management of disease outbreaks including respiratory, gastrointestinal, etc
• Occupational and Environmental hazards to health
• Communicable disease control and consultation on immunization issues
• Work with vulnerable populations
• Work in a variety of public health settings and organizations in Alberta and other parts of Canada
• Experience in non communicable disease secondary prevention/screening programs, and in chronic disease/injury prevention and health promotion
• Opportunities for a wide variety of additional experiences through electives 

Workload

First part of program: Residents pursue certification in Family Medicine and focus on specific areas of interest within the first two years of the program; call is rotation-dependent.  During Family Medicine elective time, residents are introduced to PHPM through junior PHPM rotations.  Residents attend PHPM academic half day each Friday afternoon.

Second part of program: Residents start their academic year spent in Masters coursework (including Epidemiology and Biostatistics) at the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta or another academic institution subject to approval by the Resident Program Committee (RPC) and can lead to an Master of Public Health (MPH) or other Masters degree. Residents typically do their MPH practicum within core public health rotations undertaken in the summer between the first and second years of MPH coursework.  Core Public Health rotations +/- selectives fill the remainder of this part of the program.

Final part of program: Core Public Health rotations, including senior rotations, and remaining selectives and electives will fill the remainder of the program to fulfill the Public Health and Preventive Medicine training objectives. Opportunity to take first call with preceptors during rotations enhances the training experience and preparedness for practice.

Research Expectations

The academic year in the MPH program at the University of Alberta has a practicum research project. The program has two selectives that residents must complete.  The first selective has Research as one of the options.  Depending on resident interest, many other research opportunities or quality improvement projects are also available throughout the program.

 

 

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Program Curriculum

This residency program is for 5 years.

Program length of training does not exceed the Royal College or College of Family Physicians of Canada standard.

There are four phases of training: Transition to Discipline, Foundations, Core and Transition to Practice. 
The four phases typically take 5 years to complete.  Below is an outline of the expected yearly training activities. 

PGY1

Basic Clinical Training (BCT) doing a variety of patient care rotations.

PGY2 - PGY3

Academic courses for 12-20 months, including any project requirements, on a full-time basis. This includes mandatory graduate courses in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and can work towards a Masters degree at either the University of Alberta or an alternate academic institution, subject to approval by the Resident Program Committee (RPC). At the University of Alberta, this would work toward a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. Residents typically do their MPH practicum within core public health rotations undertaken in the summer between the first and second years of MPH coursework.

For more information: https://www.ualberta.ca/public-health/programs/mph-programs/index.html  

PGY3

Complete academic courses per above.

Core Public Health rotations, +/- selectives, fill the remainder of this part of the program providing specialized, practical skills in communicable disease control, environmental health, non communicable disease secondary prevention/screening programs, chronic disease/injury primary prevention and health promotion, surveillance and other basic public health topics.

PGY4-PGY5

Core Public Health rotations, including senior rotations such as health policy and senior management and remaining selectives and electives will fill the remainder of the program to fulfill the Public Health and Preventive Medicine training objectives. 

Rotations will be structured so as to provide the resident with increasing responsibilities as they progress through their training.  The last phase of the residency focuses on rotations and electives which solidify the specialized, practical skills and knowledge required by a public health and preventive medicine specialist in practice.

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Training Sites

The Public Health and Preventive Medicine program at the University of Alberta offers a broad range of clinical, academic, and field experiences and placement sites, including: 

University of Alberta

School of Public Health (MPH)
Division of Preventive Medicine
Department of Family Medicine

Alberta Health Services

Seventh Street Plaza
Edmonton, Central, South and Calgary Zones (Urban and Rural areas)
Sexually Transmitted Infections Clinic
Travelers Health Clinic
Seventh Street Plaza and/or Aberhart Centre
Provincial Laboratory of Public Health for Northern Alberta
Pediatric Environmental Health Clinic
Provincial Programs (e.g. Surveillance, Screening) 

Indigenous Health Services

First Nations and Inuit Health Branch

Hospitals and Health Centres

University of Alberta
Grey Nuns Hospital
Misericordia Hospital
Royal Alexandra Hospital
Northeast Community Health Centre

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Additional Information

The University of Alberta recognizes the importance of diversity, equity, inclusivity, decolonization, and indigenization (EDIDI) and is committed to the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry’s policy on anti-racism. 

Further, the University is committed to implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action that are relevant to education and medicine.The pursuit of diversity and equitable opportunities is a core value that guides our selection practices. 

The University encourages applications from underrepresented groups, including Indigenous persons, persons with a disability, racialized persons, women, persons of a minority gender identity or sexual orientation, and individuals who would contribute to the diversity of the medical community. The CaRMS Self-Identification Questionnaire (CSIQ) is an optional form that candidates can fill out. 

Our program recognizes the importance of EDIDI and anti-racism in residency selection, but is currently not using the CSIQ as part of our application process. We are using other methods to ensure mitigation of bias and equitable opportunities for all applicants. 

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FAQ

 Specialty/Field Questions for Public Health/Preventive Medicine

1. What are some strengths about your specialty? What draws and keeps people in your specialty?
   
   The focus on population health, prevention or early intervention in disease processes.
   
   There are extensive opportunities to collaborate with other professionals and provide physician leadership in program and/or policy development and evaluation and research – every day is different!
   
   Opportunities for broad health impacts through programs and policies (eg. vaccination programs that have prevented and eliminated diseases).
   
   Opportunities for further training in field epidemiology and occupational medicine.

2. What are some common complaints about your specialty?
   
   Direct patient care work can be limited, depending on the type of work chosen within the specialty.

3. Why did you choose your specialty?
   
   Opportunity to be proactive and deal with preventing problems/disease.
   
   Opportunity for large-scale health impacts across the population. 

4. What types of clinical cases do you commonly see?
   
   Although there are opportunities for direct patient work (e.g. in community clinics or specialized clinics such as STI, TB, Inner City medicine, Travel, addictions, obesity), the specialty is focused on dealing with the needs and problems in populations or groups of people. So instead of a stethoscope and lab tests we are using population diagnostic tools such as epidemiology, to study trends and risk factors in diseases and instead of individual treatments, we provide programs and policies to improve population health outcomes.
   
   Because a set of infectious diseases are reportable to Public Health, we deal routinely with these diseases that are reportable (e.g. TB, STIs, travel medicine, foodborne/waterborne illnesses), and environmental exposures; however, injuries and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers and their risk factors such as smoking, nutrition and physical inactivity are also dealt with through a population-based approach (e.g. surveillance, disease prevention, health promotion). 

5. Briefly describe a typical day.

• Consulting with physicians, nurses and other professionals on public health issues
• Responding to infectious disease outbreaks by working with a team of professionals investigating and working to control the outbreak 
• Chairing meetings, such as on emergency planning and management
• Meeting with staff to plan for chronic disease prevention programs and policies
• Clinical work
• Research / literature search / policy review
• Help lead the response to emerging public health threats
• Health Advocacy
• Working with other professionals and stakeholders both within and outside of health care

6. a) What are the varieties of lifestyles within your field?

• Very flexible and accommodates varying needs.
• Primarily office hours in addition to on call taken from home.

          b) Specifically, how able is your specialty to accommodate family life?

• Most of the work is done during office hours on weekdays.
• After hours call is taken from home, and most emergency issues can be dealt with from home by phone.
• Opportunities for part-time work, including patient-care duties.

7. Range of incomes?

• Most positions are salaried and include health benefit plans, vacation, pensions, etc.
• Salary range: $200,000 to $400,000, depending on years of practice and position, plus benefits which are considered to be about 20% of salary
• Patient-care work would be added onto this base salary

8. How do you see your discipline changing over the next decade?

• Continued demand for Medical Officers of Health
• Public health and preventive medicine specialists could also work in areas outside of traditional public health roles, for example in Primary Care Networks/Family Care Clinics, community clinics, or as medical administrators
• Growing emergency issues from current trends such as climate change could increase the need for public health and preventive medicine specialists (infection control, emergency preparedness)
• Increasing work in Chronic Disease Prevention and Healthy Built Environments to address high and growing burdens of non-communicable diseases
• Academic positions may also be available

Residency Program Questions

1. a) What are you looking for specifically in an impressive candidate?
   
   
   • Self starter who is able to use or adapt current resources and shape them in order to meet different needs
   • Can consider issues from a broad perspective, particularly from a system or population level
   • Knows how to ask relevant questions and provide well thought out answers
   • Demonstrates interest in specialty through his/her electives
   • Thrives in multi-disciplinary environment
   • Relevant past experience 
   • Strong written and oral communication skills
     
     
   b) What can a potential candidate do now in order to be an appealing applicant to your program?
   
   
   • Do one or more electives in public health and preventive medicine
   • Do an elective in related disciplines, e.g. inner city health, travel medicine, TB clinic, STI, Indigenous health, etc.
   • Demonstrate an ability to work within a complex organization
   • Demonstrate ability to work independently and within a team
   • Demonstrate leadership/managerial talent
   • Demonstrate orientation to prevention and population health
   • Volunteer with a community agency
     
     
2. What is your residency program’s orientation and focus?
   
   The focus of the residency program is to build residents’ knowledge and skills for independent public health and preventive medicine practice in a variety of settings.  Core rotations, selectives and electives will give residents as much "hands on" experience as possible while still maintaining an academic focus. Weekly Academic Half Day lectures and exercises complement and supplement rotations to enhance resident knowledge and skills.  For most rotations the residents are expected to write a brief paper or complete a dedicated project while also participating actively in the day-to-day work under the supervision of a Medical Officer of Health (MOH)/Public Health and Preventive Medicine Specialist at the rotation site. 
   
   
3. What is the availability of experiences in subspecialty areas during training?
   
   Occupational Medicine is a subspecialty residency program that can be applied to by those completing internal medicine or Public Health and Preventive Medicine (PHPM).  There is a Occupational Medicine residency program at University of Alberta located within the same division as PHPM residency.  Occupational Medicine is one of the options offered for the first selective block in PHPM.
   
   Additional training in Field Epidemiology can be applied to after PHPM residency and is available through Public Health Agency of Canada.
   
   Some rotations and most electives can be shaped to help to increase focus on a resident's areas of interest. We have faculty with experience in both public health practice and academia, with non communicable disease and communicable disease expertise, and with local/provincial and international experience, presenting our residents with the opportunities for varied focus areas of experience during their training. There are opportunities provided for training tailored to resident interests (e.g. training certifications in addictions medicine, obesity medicine, etc during electives).
   
   
4. Are there sufficient elective opportunities during training to explore your special interests?
   
   For residents with interest in additional electives, the MPH Practicum Project can be streamlined to meet some rotation requirements to allow some additional elective time.
   
   
5. What is the on-call schedule during each year of residency?
   
   During family medicine and clinical rotations, call will be in-house, following the practices of the specific rotation.  Public Health and Preventive Medicine call will normally commence after the academic year. Call is typically home call, and conforms to the Resident Physician Agreement with the Professional Association of Resident Physicians of Alberta (PARA).
   
   
6. What distinguishes the U of A program from other programs?
   
   The program has a focus on practical application of public health and preventive medicine skills.  There are opportunities for working with U of A program faculty with strong expertise in both communicable diseases and non-communicable disease prevention and control, with backgrounds in both public health practice and academia, and with experience locally/provincially and internationally.
   
   Residents are directly involved at an early stage in their career planning. This program is housed in the Division of Preventive Medicine, alongside Occupational Medicine. PHPM residents have the opportunity to participate in Occupational Medicine rotations (one of only two programs in Canada), and Occupational Medicine is one of the options offered for the first selective block in PHPM.  There are opportunities provided for training tailored to resident interests (e.g. training certifications in addictions medicine, obesity medicine, etc during electives).
   
   
7. Who can we contact for more information or to set up electives?
   
   Contact the Public Health and Preventive Medicine Program Coordinator via email at mepphpm@ualberta.ca.
   
   
8. Is there a list of residents whom we contact?
   
   Yes!  Please contact our Lead Residents, at phpmres@ualberta.ca.
   
   
9. How competitive is it to get in, and then to succeed in your field?
   
   Recently, there have been approximately 25 – 40 applicants for the two Public Health and Preventive Medicine positions through CaRMS. The program has a 100% pass rate on Royal College exams in recent years.  All graduates of the University of Alberta PHPM program have been successful in finding jobs using their training.
   
   
10. What local, national or international conferences would be of benefit to candidates interested in your residency program?
    
    
    • Canadian Public Health Association annual meeting
    • American Public Health Association Conferences
    • Canadian Immunization Conference
    • Practice Management Institute courses through the CMA