January 6, 2017 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu
Branham Tomarchio grew up in Aiken, S.C. and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Furman University. He completed a Doctor of Medicine from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) nearly ten years ago, but his education was far from over at that point.
“I have always loved people,” says Tomarchio of his decision to practice medicine. “I wanted to be there to help them in ways that only a doctor could during their time of need.”
After his 2007 graduation from MUSC, Tomarchio completed a Medicine Internship at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. He then served as the House Office of Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia, during which time he received the university medical center’s You Make a Difference Award (2010).
I was surprised at the depth of material covered in the general MPH program and impressed with the quality of the Arnold School faculty.
-Branham Tomarchio, MPH Graduate, SOM Assistant Professor
Tomarchio returned to S.C. in 2011, holding the title of the Medical Director for the state’s Department of Corrections and then working as a private practice physician. In 2015, he enrolled at UofSC to begin a dual training opportunity: Master of Public Health (MPH) at the Arnold School and Preventive Medicine Residency at the School of Medicine (both of which he completed in December) through the Palmetto Health-University of South Carolina Preventive Medicine Residency. A year later, he added a third area of study by joining the Darla Moore School’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.
“I was surprised at the depth of material covered in the general MPH program and impressed with the quality of the Arnold School faculty,” says Tomarchio. “My previous medical training and clinical experience served as a scaffold to link and apply a world of new information. In medical school, we only scratch the surface of topics like epidemiology, biostatistics and health promotion. The Arnold School MPH curriculum provided a deep dive in to these valuable fields and provided me with new tools to apply in my practice of preventive medicine and public health practice.”
Though he always had an interest in public health and population health, Tomarchio’s professional training and MPH program experiences have expanded and refined those interests. His focus has evolved to include environmental and occupational medicine as well as public health and correctional medicine.
The Arnold School MPH curriculum provided a deep dive in to these valuable fields and provided me with new tools to apply in my practice of preventive medicine and public health practice.
-Branham Tomarchio, MPH Graduate, SOM Assistant Professor
One of Tomarchio’s influential public health mentors is Linda Bell, Director for the Bureau of Disease Control at the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. “Dr. Bell is a wonderful mentor and public health practitioner,” he says. “She manages to juggle a variety of vital roles and public health work with poise and grace under tremendous pressure. She definitely taught me the value of public health practice in a way that I had never understood previously.”
Tomarchio will incorporate what he has learned through his MPH and Preventive Medicine programs (and continues to learn through his MBA program) in his new position as an assistant professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Family and Preventive Medicine.