"The Prevention Pipeline": UMMC and UMSOM training the next generation of preventive medicine leaders
The Prevention Pipeline is a space dedicated to sharing the people, ideas, and work that drive preventive medicine forward. This blog brings together medical students, residents, and faculty who are united by a commitment to prevention, population health, and upstream approaches to improving health outcomes.
Resident Reflection posts will feature writing by the residents that offers readers an inside look at both their personal paths and their journeys within our program. These reflection posts explore what drew them to the field of preventive medicine and how their interests, skills, and professional identities evolve as they progress toward graduation and future careers.
Some posts will highlight work or research completed in the classroom, projects during practicum rotations, or efforts within the community. Each resident’s passions and career aspirations are unique, and thus the reflections will span a wide range of topics. Along the way, readers may join residents on their walk to work along the harbor, share in the culinary delights of the city, or even learn what they do for fun outside of medicine.
The Student Spotlight highlights the voices and experiences of medical students who are exploring preventive medicine, public health, and population-based care, with a particular emphasis on lifestyle medicine. These posts feature reflections on students’ academic journeys, clinical experiences, research projects, and community engagement that have shaped their interest in prevention, health promotion, and behavior change. Through personal narratives this section showcases how medical students are engaging with upstream determinants of health—including nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, and social connection—and envisioning their future roles as physician leaders in prevention, lifestyle medicine, policy, and public health.
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Read the blogs below:
Blog #1: Welcome to the "The Prevention Pipeline": UMMC and UMSOM training the next generation of preventive medicine leaders
January 12, 2026
Happy New Year and welcome to The Prevention Pipeline!
As we begin 2026, the University of Maryland Preventive Medicine residency program is excited to launch The Prevention Pipeline, a space dedicated to sharing the people, ideas, and work that drive preventive medicine forward. This blog brings together medical students, residents, and faculty who are united by a commitment to prevention, population health, and upstream approaches to improving health outcomes.
The Prevention Pipeline highlights the full continuum of training and practice in preventive medicine. Here, medical students explore their early interests and experiences, residents reflect on the challenges and rewards of preventive medicine training, and faculty share expertise, mentorship, and perspectives shaped by years of practice and leadership. Together, these voices reflect the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of our field.
Throughout the year, this blog will feature accomplishments and milestones, timely public health topics, research and quality improvement efforts, and real-world examples of prevention in action—from clinical preventive services to community-based and policy-level interventions. Our goal is to foster learning, dialogue, and inspiration while showcasing the vital role preventive medicine plays in advancing health equity and population well-being.
As we look ahead to the coming year, we invite readers and contributors alike to engage with The Prevention Pipeline: celebrate successes, reflect on lessons learned, and share ideas that strengthen the future prevention workforce. We look forward to growing this community together and continuing the important work of building health—upstream.
Welcome to a new year—standing outside UMSOM on this crisp January day, I invite you to come follow along with me in The Prevention Pipeline!
Marissa Khajavi MD, MPH
Program Director, Public Health and General Preventive Medicine Residency
Blog #2: Insights from preventive medicine residents on training, practice, and professional growth
January 20, 2026
Resident Reflections: Insights from preventive medicine residents on training, practice, and professional growth
How Policy Shapes Health Care— The Importance of Involvement of Trainees
As the Maryland Legislative Session starts we are thinking all things policy!
Policies influence everything from access to care and insurance coverage to public health funding and prevention efforts. Physicians witness the downstream effects of these decisions every day—caring for patients whose health is shaped as much by policy and social conditions as by clinical care.
Physician involvement in policy is essential. Clinicians bring real-world experience, scientific expertise, and an understanding of unintended consequences that can strengthen policy decisions. In preventive medicine and public health, policy is one of our most powerful tools to improve population health, reduce inequities, and address health upstream. Engaging in policy—through advocacy, research, education, or advisory roles—allows physicians to help build a more effective, equitable, and prevention-focused health system.
We strive to provide our residents with a rich policy experience. Below find PGY-3 Dr. Gabriel Pontipiedra’s reflection on his policy work thus far. --Marissa Khajavi MD, MPH Program Director
I was drawn to Preventive Medicine because it focuses on addressing health upstream, instead of only reacting once disease has already occurred. During medical school and my prior residency training, I often felt frustrated by how frequently social determinants of health, policy decisions, and inequities were acknowledged but not meaningfully addressed in clinical settings. Preventive Medicine felt like the place where public health, policy, and patient care could actually come together in a real and impactful way.
My policy rotation with The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) and time working on Capitol Hill this past fall were especially meaningful experiences. Translating evidence into advocacy and seeing firsthand how policy decisions shape population health was incredibly eye-opening and reinforced the idea that physicians can—and should—play roles beyond the clinic.
The work I completed with The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) in the Office of Minority and Health Disparities was also meaningful. I worked to analyze racial disparities in infant mortality and low birth weight across Maryland counties. That project brought together data analysis, health equity, and policy relevance in a way that strongly reflects my interests. Seeing how these data directly informed conversations around accountability and targeted intervention was both validating and motivating, and it underscored the potential for policy to address these inequities.
Building on this foundation, my current rotation with MDH in the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health has placed me at the center of the legislative process during session. Through helping prepare testimony, conducting research, and attending hearings in Annapolis, I am seeing firsthand how evidence on infant mortality and disparities can shape policy decisions. Being part of this fast-paced and critically important space has reinforced my belief that thoughtful, data-driven policy work is essential to improving outcomes for mothers and infants across Maryland.
-- Gabe Pontipiedra DO PGY-3 and Chief Resident
Blog #3: Student Spotlight- Medical student perspectives, reflections, and pathways
January 26, 2026
Student Spotlight: Medical student perspectives, reflections, and pathways
Our program believes we must be healthy doctors to take care of our patients!
A component of our program is the integration of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine curriculum where residents' complete modules, didactics/activities, and lifestyle medicine clinical training. I personally am a strong believer in lifestyle as a preventive tool and that includes one of the pillars of lifestyle medicine- positive social connections.
Strong social connections are powerful—and often overlooked—determinant of health. Meaningful relationships with family, friends, coworkers, and community members are associated with lower rates of chronic disease, improved mental health, and increased longevity, while social isolation has been linked to higher risks of depression, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality. From a preventive medicine perspective, fostering social connection is an upstream intervention that supports resilience, healthy behaviors, and equitable health outcomes.
Salim Muhammed, MS2, is a member of the Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group. Below he shares why he is interested in Lifestyle Medicine and touches on the importance of social connections for personal and patient health.
-- Marissa Khajavi PD and LMIG advisor
I find Lifestyle Medicine both rewarding and empowering because it gets back to the fundamentals of health and tackles the root causes of disease in a way that is sustainable and effective. What’s especially fascinating is the approach on leveraging and protecting our physiological systems for treatment and prevention. That’s a message and movement I’m excited to practice, share, and promote through LMIG.
Lmig.umsom- Our awesome M2 SGA president shares what her village looks like.
Who we consider in our circle can shift throughout our life—things happen. We move. Priorities change. Major health changes. Death. But throughout it all, our community is grounded all the same: A support system, the people we share our biggest news with first, the ones we can call late at night, and those we can be vulnerable with.
Blog #4: Resident Reflection - From Data to Prevention: A Resident’s Journey in Clinical Informatics
February 2, 2026
Resident Reflection: From data to prevention, a resident's journey in clinical informatics
In today’s data-driven healthcare landscape, informatics plays a critical role in transforming information into action. From identifying population-level trends to improving clinical decision-making, medical informatics is a powerful tool for advancing prevention, equity, and high-value care.
At the University of Maryland, preventive medicine residents have exceptional opportunities to build informatics skills and learn how data can be leveraged to improve patient and population health.
A cornerstone of this training is mentorship from leaders in the field, including Dr. Michael Grasso, Director of the Clinical Informatics Group at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Through this work, residents are exposed to the practical applications of informatics across clinical care, quality improvement, and health systems innovation—preparing them to lead in an increasingly data-driven healthcare environment.
Read below PGY-3 Dr. Jenny Su’s experience during her informatics rotation with Dr. Grasso.
-Marissa Khajavi, Program Director
My transition into Preventive Medicine was driven by a conviction that we must move beyond reactive care to design healthcare systems where the healthiest path is the easiest for both clinician and patient to follow. Before residency, I built a deep foundation in clinical informatics by working with multiple hospital networks across the country. Navigating and optimizing numerous versions of Epic provided me with a unique perspective on adapting to the specific workflows and challenges of diverse organizations, both large and small. Through these experiences, I learned to reduce documentation burdens and translate real-world data into actionable insights, sparking my interest in the "why" behind healthcare policy and systems management.
This expertise was solidified during a rotation with Informatics Department Chair, Dr. Michael Grasso, where I created two projects to help narrow the gap between raw data and clinical action. I created the "Cosmos User Guide for the Population Health Research and Informatics Provider" to empower fellow clinicians, and I conducted original research using the robust Cosmos database. My research poster, "Inpatient Admission Risk within 6-12 Months after GLP-1 Initiation Compared With Atorvastatin Among Patients With Atrial Fibrillation and BMI >= 25, An Epic Cosmos Based Analysis," exemplifies how I utilized real-world evidence from over 300 million patients to generate the foundation for future potential actionable clinical insights. By merging these informatics capabilities with my clinical training, I am dedicated to building a future of real-world evidence-based and data-driven care that makes lasting wellness more accessible for everyone.
-Jenny Su PGY 3
