Building the research culture of family medicine with fellowship training.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The future of family medicine is closely tied to the strength of family medicine research. Physicians with fellowship training have been shown to be more productive researchers than those without fellowship training. This study's objectives are to (1) identify fellowship programs available to family physicians, (2) explore how family medicine fellows are taught research skills, and (3) identify obstacles to enhancing research training in fellowships. METHODS Fellowship programs available to family physicians were identified by Internet searches and confirmed by telephone or e-mail. Directors of identified fellowships received a 33-item survey exploring research training provided by their program. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the quantitative data. Survey comments were analyzed qualitatively to identify themes. RESULTS We confirmed that 247 of 328 identified research fellowships are available to family physicians. Survey response rate from those 247 fellowships was 65%. Fellowships with and without a research focus are providing research training. They are threatened, however, by weak research infrastructure, inadequate funding, and attitudinal biases against family medicine research. CONCLUSIONS There are many fellowship and research training opportunities for family physicians. But in many programs, research training is tenuous, and support for researchers is low. We recommend expanding research advocacy efforts within family medicine, Congress, and funding institutions.