Many Preventive Medicine residency programs have extensive and confusing educational networks, primarily due to the need to incorporate academic public health training into the residency program. For some programs, a residency program may be based out of a particular medical school while the MPH training is offered at a local university. Other programs, thankfully, are organized around a single institution. A good directory of residency programs is maintained by the American College of Preventive Medicine. There are a few questions you should ask that are not normally discussed in residency interviews for clinical programs. This is very important to ask. In general, Preventive Medicine does not benefit from Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) funding and receives only limited funds from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), leaving programs without residency stipend support even though the capacity exists to educate more residents [source: Parkinson MD and Scutchfield FD. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2000;18(1) 99-101]. Funding arrangements vary widely by program and by year as well. Within the past few years several programs have closed, either temporarily or permanently. Questions along these lines are generally received without prejudice by program directors; there is consensus within the Preventive Medicine community that under-funding is an ongoing concern. It is also helpful to do a quick Web search to see what type of public funding has been made available to particular programs. The HRSA website shows, for example, that nine programs received HRSA Preventive Medicine Residency Training Grants in 2003, totaling approximately $1.85 million. Most programs have a list of recent graduates and should be able to provide information on their current employment. This question is important to ask if you areapplying as a medical student. | 
