The first year Loma Linda University offers a Preventive Medicine Residency Program to medical school graduates and residents interested in health promotion. This three-year program trains physicians in disease prevention by developing skills in research, health promotion, administration, and policy development.
Residents also work in primary care clinics and learn the basics of research.
As part of this training, residents work at Patton State Hospital under the guidance of the public health office. Loma Linda preventive medicine residents have been working at Patton State Hospital since 1986. During that time, residents have contributed in many important ways to the hospital. Each of the learning projects has benefited Patton by helping to solve a problem, develop a policy, investigate or study the epidemiology of a disease, or develop a system of value to the institution. Results have also been used to guide public health policy at Patton.