About the Department
Making Strides in Preventive Health
The Department of Preventive Medicine has been a leader in the field since its origin and has made many noteworthy contributions to the understanding of public health and disease etiology, treatment and prevention. Its cutting-edge, population-oriented research gets consistently ranked number one in National Institutes of Health funding among comparable medical school departments.
Notable research contributions
- The relationship between hormones and cancer
- Exercise as a means to reduce breast cancer risk
- Impact of air pollution on childhood lung function development
- Advances in the etiology, treatment and prevention of pediatric obesity
- Interaction between genes and the environment
Transdisciplinary Research
Maximizing on its blend of expertise, research and teaching, the Department of Preventive Medicine has excelled in its transdisciplinary approach to research, a strategy hallmarked by the integration of biologically and behaviorally motivated hypotheses, advanced technology and extensive study populations.
- Employment of the Cancer Surveillance Program to enhance population-based disease studies
- Use of multiple ethnic groups within the Multiethnic Cohort Study to localize genetic findings
- Integration of geographic information systems in the Children’s Health Study to asses Los Angeles pollution and its potential influence on childhood disease patterns
Divisions
Between its five diverse divisions, the Department of Preventive Medicine is home to worldwide authorities on prevention research in biostatistics, environmental health, health behavior, epidemiology, and bioinformatics.