New York State International Training & Research Program

Training is undertaken within two major entities of the NYSDOH:

Wadsworth Center, Division of Infectious Disease

The Wadsworth Center, located in Albany, New York, is the most comprehensive state public health laboratory in the nation. Its public health mission encompasses basic and applied research in the biomedical and environmental fields, clinical and environmental testing, and quality assurance. In addition, education in the biomedical and environmental sciences is an important mission of the Wadsworth Center; two of the academic departments of the University at Albany's School of Public Health the Department of Biomedical Science and Department of Environmental Health and Toxicology are based at the Wadsworth Center. The Center responds to public health threats, and develops and applies the most up-to-date technologies and methods to ensure rapid, accurate detection of disease with a minimum turnaround time. Through licensure and training, the Center assures high quality performance of clinical, environmental, hospital and commercial laboratories and of tissue banks that provide services to New Yorkers. The Wadsworth Center encompasses four laboratory campuses, the Biggs Laboratory, the David Axelrod Institute and the Griffin Laboratory (all within a 12-mile radius). The Center includes over 1000 (staff and support staff) positions and it receives millions of dollars in extramural grants and contracts from Federal Agencies and from private foundations. The Wadsworth Center is organized into four major scientific divisions. State-of-the-art instrumentation in the Wadsworth Center includes a federally funded microscopy and image analysis facility, a national biotechnology resource available to qualified biomedical researchers. Core instrumentation facilities in molecular genetics, immunology, and biochemistry, imaging and molecular structure support both clinical science and research activities. Seminar programs host external speakers to the Center each week throughout the year, and a rich mix of intramural presentations in clinical and basic science provide both the permanent scientific staff and the dozens of on-site graduate students and postdoctoral trainees with opportunities to gain up-to-date information and concepts. Trainees are encouraged to participate in these seminars and especially the monthly seminar presented jointly by the Division of Infectious Disease and the Division of Epidemiology.

Division of Epidemiology

http://www.health.state.ny.us

The mission of the Division of Epidemiology is to protect the health of all New Yorkers by providing leadership in the development and application of scientifically sound principles of epidemiology and disease prevention and control. The Division conducts disease surveillance; provides expert technical assistance; collaborates with communities, local health units, and health care professionals; and shares expertise, epidemiologic information, and knowledge, in confronting the variety of endemic, epidemic, and emerging communicable diseases.

The Division of Epidemiology is comprised of a Statistical Unit and four bureaus: Bureau of Sexually Transmitted Disease Control, Bureau of Tuberculosis Control, Bureau of HIV/AIDS Epidemiology, and the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control. The Bureau of Communicable Disease Control consists of a variety of large, high-profile programs including Immunization, Arthropod-borne Disease Control, Zoonoses, Regional Epidemiology, Infection Control and Emerging Infections Program. The Division includes over 300 staff positions and it receives millions of dollars in extramural grants and contracts from Federal Agencies for communicable disease surveillance and control.

Established in 1985, the School of Public Health was created as a joint venture between the New York State Department of Health and the University at Albany, State University of New York. The New York State Department of Health is unique among state health departments in size, sophistication, and the support of both public health research and practice. Formally accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health, the School of Public Health offers four academic departments, with MPH, MS, DrPH, and PhD degrees, in the basic disciplines that constitute public health: Biomedical Sciences and Environmental Health and Toxicology, Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Health Policy Management.

Formally known as The State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, SUNY Downstate Medical Center can trace its roots back to 1860, when a school of medicine was founded at the Long Island College Hospital. The new college's faculty revolutionized medical education in this country by bringing the teaching of medicine to the hospital bedside, thus rejecting the idea that physicians should be trained exclusively in university lecture halls.

Today, SUNY Downstate is one of the nation's leading urban medical centers. SUNY Downstate comprises a College of Medicine, College of Health Related Professions, College of Nursing, School of Graduate Studies, and University Hospital of Brooklyn.

University Hospital of Brooklyn (serving a population of over 2.3 million people) is Brooklyn's only hospital located at an academic medical center. As such, it offers the most advanced and comprehensive care in Brooklyn. Many of its physicians are regularly rated among the best in New York City. Some are known throughout the world.

With the borough of Brooklyn being so particularly hard hit by the AIDS epidemic, Downstate Medical Center has been a pioneer in AIDS care and was established to integrate and expand the multidisciplinary efforts that exist within the HIV care and research programs. It is composed of care providers and investigators with academic appointments at SUNY Downstate. Under the direction of Dr. Jack DeHovitz, the goal of the HIV Center for Women and Children is to provide first-rate interdisciplinary health care to all persons with HIV disease.