Current Residents
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Sheila Bushkin, MD, is helping at the Rescue Mission in Albany, 2008. |
Sheila Bushkin, MD
Throughout the first half of my career, I followed the traditional approach to healthcare, focusing attention, of course, on one patient at a time. Each patient’s individual medical, social, behavioral and psychological history was recorded and scrutinized for clues to the etiology of his or her disease. Treatment was provided and advice was rendered for appropriate modifications in health behaviors and lifestyle activities. Eventually the patient was discharged back out into a world that did not always encourage success in the patient’s achievement of post-treatment recommendations (a fact that sometimes negatively impacted the patient’s full recovery or limited his/her sustained good health).
As a surgeon, and later, as an emergency physician, the things that disturbed me the most were obesity and cigarette smoking. These were the factors that most significantly threatened a good surgical outcome as well as the post-surgical healing process. They were also the most common factors leading to emergency department visits for cardiac and respiratory illnesses. There seemed to be very little that physicians could do to reduce smoking and to help people achieve a healthy weight.
These concerns eventually lead to my membership in the Preventive Medicine Committee at the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY). It was through the efforts of this committee and the ability of MSSNY members to communicate with legislative leaders, that state-wide legislation concerning smoking restrictions had been achieved. One of my first contributions to this committee involved a comprehensive analysis of the issues surrounding the growing obesity epidemic. In 2003, I authored the MSSNY policy paper on this subject, which was then used to share our concerns with New York State legislators, and to invite their support in obesity-related initiatives. Since then, the NYS legislature has passed many bills supporting healthy diet and improved physical activity for NYS citizens.
After the 9-11 terrorist attacks, MSSNY convened a Task Force on Bioterrorism and Disaster Preparedness, in partnership with the New York State Department of Health. I became a member of this group and subsequently served as a faculty member. In this capacity, I was able to lead seminars for NYS physicians after we had developed a CME-course on biological, chemical, radiological agents, blast injuries, and the psychological effects of trauma. I continued to serve as a faculty member when a later CME-course was prepared on Pandemic Influenza. The years of preparation for a future pandemic, (including educating NYS physicians on what to expect, how to treat patients and manage surges, how to prepare individual physician offices and staffs, as well as hospitals,) have now proven to be invaluable to the NYS Department of Health, MSSNY and to all the physicians of NYS including me.
The most important lesson learned from serving on these committees was that physicians really do have the power to provide a positive influence on the health status of the general population. Ultimately, that results in better health for each individual citizen and improved outcomes for each individual patient.
The significance of this lesson lead to my decision to apply to the NYS Preventive Medicine Residency Program at the State University at Albany School of Public Health.
This residency is under a dual direction, which includes not only the U Albany SPH, but also, the NYS Department of Health. Without exception, the faculty members at this program are of the highest quality and are sincerely committed to the educational growth and leadership skills of each individual resident. Among the most outstanding features of this program, are the dynamic people who direct the program. Mary Applegate, MD, MPH, is Director of the residency program and the Associate Dean of the School of Public Health. She is completely devoted to the educational and personal needs of each resident and shows enormous flexibility regarding the individual interests of each resident. Indeed, flexibility in choice of practicum rotations and elective courses is a great strength of this residency, and during the first 2 month orientation period, new residents are introduced to almost every department and bureau at the NYS DOH, as well as two local health departments. This gives residents an early opportunity to consider their future practicum choices. Irina Khmelnitsky, the Coordinator of the program, is without question, an exceptional one-woman support system for each resident. She assists with schedules, paperwork and advice regarding anything connected with the institution. She is easily accessible at all times, is easy to work with, and truly devoted to making the educational experience a superior one.
This residency program is clearly top-notch, and I am honored to be a part of it.
Kyong Park, MD
As I advanced through medical school in Philadelphia, I quickly learned that our abilities to provide acute health care were unsurpassed, but little emphasis was being placed on chronic healthcare in the US. So when it came time to decide on a specialty, I wanted a challenge and chose to follow the less traveled path into primary care. I trained in both internal medicine and family medicine, primarily in Ohio and Iowa. While both provided wonderful opportunities to care for the individual, I became disappointed that it did not provide a reasonable means to improve healthcare on a larger scale.
During a community health rotation, I meet health care practitioners within the specialty of preventive medicine and public health. Unlike all my prior experiences with other specialists, they did not provide healthcare one patient at a time in 15 minute increments but rather provided health care to everyone at all times. While a good clinician hopes to improve the lives of twenty patients in a single day, a single action for a preventive medicine physician or public health practitioner can improve the lives of hundreds or even millions of individuals for years.
The real excitement within preventive medicine is that the specialty has been neglected for so long, and it is in need of strong and innovative leaders. While I would have been a good primary care clinician and helped many, I know that my impact will be magnitudes larger through preventive medicine. In addition, I have the opportunity to enter the specialty at a time when prevention is quickly being realized as a more practical and effective approach to improving health than all our technological advances in medicine.
On a more personal note, I chose SUNY - Albany and the New York State Department of Health for two reasons. First, my colleagues are leaders within the field and genuinely enjoy training the next generation of preventive medicine physicians. Second, the various opportunities afforded through the program were unsurpassed and flexible to my specific interests. Besides the satisfaction with the work that I do, the lifestyle of a preventive medicine physician and resident is probably one of the most appealing parts of the specialty. Every day, I am proud and happy to be a preventive medicine physician and to have started my career at the University of Albany and New York State Health Department.
Priya Sharma, MD, MPH
For the longest time I did not even know of the existence of Preventive Medicine. I completed my college career with a BS in Sociology and was pre-med throughout my university years. Towards the end of my junior year at Cornell, I wondered if my love of medicine was as strong as my love of Sociology and sought a means by which I could enjoy both. This led me into the world of public health at Boston University and I chose the concentration of Maternal and Child Health in which to focus my love of both medicine and sociology. After obtaining my MPH, I decided to go one step further for the love of medicine and completed my medical training at New York Medical College. I stayed on in the Westchester area at the Maria Fareri’s Children’s Hospital for my pediatric residency.
After completing my residency, I was left wondering how I could apply all that I had learned in my training and it is then that I discovered the field of Preventive Medicine. Albany’s Preventive Medicine Program encompassed everything I have ever loved about clinical medicine and public health into one program. As a second year PMR, I am learning how to apply everything I have learned to date in the real world and being given the tools to go one step further in my chosen field.
John L. Silvernail, MD
I have never been able to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Some would say that’s because I still haven’t grown up. My life has been defined by my involvement with the fire service for most of the last 26 years. During the past 26 years I have completed College (BS in Biology with Departmental Honors, Union College 1987), Medical School (Albany Medical College 1991), and my first residency in Family Practice (St. Clare’s Hospital, Schenectady, NY). I also have gone from firefighter to lieutenant, to captain in my hometown fire department. At the state level I am a New York State Fire Instructor and have been teaching at the State Fire Academy Since the late 1990’s. The combination of firefighting and medicine lead me to become the Chief Medical Officer for the NYS Urban Search and Rescue Team (USAR Team) based in Albany, NY. With the USAR team I have responded to many disasters in New York State including the World Trade Center Disaster on 9/11/2001.
Currently in addition to the Preventive Medicine Residency I provide occupational health services to more than 20 volunteer fire districts, medical oversight to 2 EMS agencies, and limited primary care services to about 70 developmentally disabled persons.
I am married, have 4 children (2 daughters, and twin sons), and 2 Dalmatians. I enjoy railroads, fishing and other outdoor activities.
Jane Uva, MD, MPH
I have been interested in Preventive Medicine since college at Vanderbilt University where I majored in Human and Organizational Development. My related work was in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. I developed the Nashville Adolescent Health Project which utilized medical student volunteers as health educators for troubled adolescents living in half-way facilities. As a result, I wrote my thesis on “Adolescent Health Education”. In medical school, I continued educating the pediatric and adolescent populations by directing the Student to Student program which was an educational forum in which medical students talk about health topics of interest to groups from preschool through college. Furthermore, in medical school, I became active in organized medicine at the local, state and national levels. I became the Chair of the American Medical Association Medical Student Section focusing on public health issues and national policy.
Directly after graduating from medical school, I went to Harvard University to get my MPH in Healthcare Management and Policy with a Maternal and Child Health focus. I then went on to become double board certified in Emergency Medicine and Pediatric Emergency Medicine. I went to Kentucky to an underserved area to pay off my student loans and then relocated to rural Vermont where I have been practicing for the last 13 years.
I have been very active in public service and community outreach since college and I wanted to complete the practicum portion of the Preventive Medicine Residency in order to become board certified in General Preventive Medicine. I chose this program because of its flexibility, proximity, fabulous mentors and great opportunities at the New York State Department of Health. I want to become a leader in Preventive Medicine and the world is wide open!
