Residency faculty in all specialties will be required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to fully implement competencies into residency programs by 2006. Understanding the new requirements is complicated by having several sets of guiding documents from different sources, including the general competencies of the ACGME, the Residency Review Committee for Family P...

PURPOSE A substantial proportion of adult patients with asthma have inadequately controlled symptoms despite the availability of effective treatment. The Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) can be used to discriminate between asthma patients with well- and suboptimally controlled asthma symptoms. The objective of this study was to investigate whether a postal mailing of the ACQ can be used to id...

In the European Definition of General Practice, WONCA Europe defined the specialty of General Practice in great detail 1 but the strength of the definition was actually its generality. Included in this was the statement that GPs provide 'care to every individual seeking medical care irrespective of age, sex and illness.' This splendidly defines the scope of general practice as all encompassing....

For new teachers and mentors in family practice, you are embarking on a career (part time or fulltime) that is both challenging and rewarding. You may be at a loss as to how to start to become a good teacher or mentor. Understanding that need, this new series of short notes will hopefully provide some tips on specific areas of concern like how to prepare a tutorial, to give feedback, mentoring ...

BACKGROUND General practice receptionists fulfil an essential role in UK primary care, shaping patient access to health professionals. They are often portrayed as powerful 'gatekeepers'. Existing literature and management initiatives advocate more training to improve their performance and, consequently, the patient experience. AIM To explore the complexity of the role of general practice rece...

The portion of US physicians who practice primary care has been declining, and there is general agreement that the United States has a shortage of primary care physicians. In spite of this shortage, both the number of first-year residency positions in family practice residencies1,2 and the match rate for the existing family practice first-year residency positions have declined.3 In the past, ru...

BACKGROUND Although procedural training in family practice has recently received greater emphasis, the current status of this training in residency programs has not been reported. Considerable variation in procedural training among family practice residencies is allowed by the American Board of Family Practice and accreditation requirements. This study was performed to report the current status...

1. Diabetes Centre, Isala Clinics, Zwolle, The Netherlands 2. Langerhans Medical Research Group, The Netherlands 3. General Practice Sleeuwijk, the Netherlands 4. Department of General Practice, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands 5. University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands 6. Department of Internal Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen,...

BACKGROUND The use of increasingly complex payment schemes in primary care may represent a barrier to recruiting general practitioners (GP). The existing Norwegian remuneration system is fully activity based - 2/3 fee-for-service and 1/3 capitation. Given that the system has been designed and revised in close collaborations with the medical association, it is likely to correspond - at least to ...

INTRODUCTION Many refugees arrive in Australia with complex health needs. In South Australia (SA), providing initial health care to refugees is the responsibility of General Practitioners (GPs) in private practice. Their capacity to perform this work effectively for current newly arrived refugees is uncertain. The aim of this study was to document the challenges faced by GPs in private practice...