Innovation in international training in occupational and environmental health: challenging unspoken assumptions

The Department of Community and Preventive Medicine of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in collaboration with Queens College of the City University of New York, is conducting a research training program in cooperation with partner institutions in Mexico, Brazil, and Chile to assist them to develop an enhanced capacity to identify, document, and ameliorate environmental and occupational health problems of major public significance. The Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health sponsors the program, which focuses on tailoring training to the host countries' needs and conditions. The program's centerpiece is the Selikoff Fellowship, which had been awarded to 15 Fellows by 1998. Each Fellow spends three one-month training periods in New York, interspersed with distance learning, and, with the help of a mentor, completes a research project in the home country. Details of the program are provided.