Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Overview

The Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the UC Irvine School of Medicine, and a core program of the UCI Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH), is committed to training physicians and scientists for careers in Occupational and Environmental Health, as well as providing exemplary care for the prevention, evaluation, and treatment of occupational and environmental health conditions.

Faculty members are nationally and internationally recognized for fostering basic, clinical and translational research in the field of Occupational and Environmental Health. We are experts in occupational and environmental epidemiology, toxicology, and occupational health issues.

The Center operates an Occupational and Environmental Medicine consulting clinic, which serves as a referral center for the evaluation of occupational and environmental exposures in Southern California. Our physicians are also highly skilled at performing medical and fitness evaluations for employees of businesses/organizations.

Our division has extensive research programs, which provide graduate students and residents with unique opportunities to address important topics in both the laboratory and the field, including researching work organizations. Beyond identifying safety hazards such as lead and asbestos, our researchers work to analyze the cardiovascular effects of occupational stress, reproductive and developmental toxicology, neurotoxicology, occupational health psychology, and children’s environmental health.

It is our mission to train the best scientists and clinicians, make new contributions through research, and provide the best care for our patients.

Occupational Medicine Residency Program

The Occupational Medicine Residency Program is the core teaching program of the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The OM Residency program is designed as a two-year training experience consisting of integrated clinical, academic, and practicum training with ongoing core residency training activities. As part of this program, we offer a Master’s of Science degree in Environmental Health Sciences and require our residents to complete a research thesis. The residency provides extensive core lectures, seminars and a journal club in environmental and occupational medicine. Our residents also complete rotations at field training sites — including workplace-based programs — to gain hands-on experience managing occupational health issues.

The program does not provide an initial clinical training year. Consequently, entering residents must have completed at least one year in an ACGME-accredited clinical residency program and be licensed to practice medicine in the state of California. The program also considers candidate physicians who have completed an ACGME-accredited clinical residency and obtained a Master’s of Public Health degree or the equivalent from an accredited institution. These residents may be admitted directly into a 12-month practicum training program.

The OM Residency program benefits from its location in Orange County, a major population center with more than 3 million people, and the greater Southern California area. The program’s regional emphasis gives our residents access to training opportunities in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

The OEM Division has one of the most competitive ACGME-accredited occupational medicine training programs in the country. Upon completion, residents are prepared for occupational medicine practice in a variety of settings, including private clinical practices, managed health care organizations, corporate medical departments, public health programs, and legal or regulatory agencies.

Established in 1976, the residency program has graduated more than 80 physicians. They make up the core of the practicing occupational medicine specialists in Southern California and many are leaders in corporate occupational medicine and public health practice. The residency program’s long-term collaboration with occupational medicine practitioners and other programs throughout the area offers a rich source of training experiences and expertise for our residents.

The UCLA/UCI Southern California NIOSH Education and Research Center, which the residency is a component of, provides support for resident stipends.

For further information, contact:

Dr. Alya Khan, OccMed Residency Program Director
Email: alyak@uci.edu
Phone: 949-824-8770

Occupational & Environmental Medicine Program

Ulrike Luderer, MD, PhD, MPH– COEH Director
Dean B. Baker, MD, MPH
Wayne Chang, MD, MS– Medical Director, UCI Medical Center OccHealth
Marnie Dobson, PhD
Joseph Fedoruk, MD– Medical Director, OEM Clinic
Scott Hardy, MD
Alya Khan, MD, MS– OM Residency Director
Peter L. Schnall, MD, MPH
Haiou Yang, PhD

Environmental Health Sciences Program

Graduate Program in Environmental Health Sciences

The UC Irvine COEH and Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, jointly sponsored by the UC Irvine Program in Public Health, provides training in Environmental Health Sciences, through the Master’s of Science degree and Doctor of Philosophy degree in one of two tracks, Environmental Toxicology or Exposure Science and Risk Assessment.

The Environmental Health Sciences program provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary and appropriate to teach and/or conduct basic and applied research programs in inhalation/pulmonary toxicology, biochemical neurotoxicology, reproductive and developmental toxicology, chemical pathology, toxicokinetics, radiation toxicology, molecular carcinogenesis, environmental epidemiology, exposure sciences and risk assessment.

Toxicology involves the scientific study of the entry, distribution, biotransformation and mechanism of the action of chemical agents that are harmful to the body. The graduate program interprets environmental toxicology as the study of the effects and mechanisms of action of hazardous chemicals in food, air, water and soil in the home, the workplace and the community. It also considers experimentally and theoretically such diverse research problems as:

New scientific approaches to toxicological evaluation of environmental chemicals such as air and water pollutants, food additives, industrial wastes and agricultural adjuvants;
New approaches to the evaluation of human exposures to environmental chemicals;
Mechanisms of action in chemical toxicity;
The molecular pathology of tissue injury in acute toxicity;
Scientific principles involved in evaluating risks to human health from environmental exposures.

Samantha Ayoub, MD, MPH’s thesis work was on cannabis use and work stressors due to the COVID pandemic. After graduation, Dr. Ayoub will be completing an addiction medicine fellowship at Loma Linda University.

Stephen Craft, MD, MS’ thesis work was on ovarian follicle toxicity due to low dose gamma radiation: determination of persistence of oxidative protein, lipid, and DNA damage. Before his residency, Dr. Craft served as an active duty Navy physician. Dr. Craft will be joining Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills, CA, and continue to serve in the Navy as a reservist Flight Surgeon.

Rashmi R. Bhuyan, MD, MPH’s thesis work was on air pollution linking to hypertensive disorders in pregnancy. Dr. Bhuyan will apply her expertise gained at UCI to her new role in the occupational medicine department with Kaiser Permanente in Antioch, California.