Research Participation, Protected Time,and Research Output by Family Physiciansin Family Medicine Residencies

摘要

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Future of Family Medicine project concluded that research mustbecome a greater part of the culture of the specialty. We examined the participation of family physicianresidency faculty in research, their protected time, and their research output and how thesevaried by program type. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey of all family medicine residencyprograms in the United States. The response rate was 66% (298/453). RESULTS: The majorityof programs reported at least one family physician who participates in research, though the medicalschool-based (MSB) programs reported a higher total number of faculty than the community-based,medical school affiliated (MSA) programs (9.53 versus 2.72) and percentage of faculty (56% versus37%). Substantially more MSB programs reported that they had at least one family physician withsignificant protected time for research (48% versus 7% for > 25% protected time) or any protectedtime (69% for MSB versus 45% for MSA). MSB programs and MSA programs reported similar successat producing at least one poster or paper for national meetings within the last 3 years (63% versus41%) but not for published papers (86% versus 43%). CONCLUSIONS: We found that only about half ofthe family medicine residencies produced any nationally recognized research over a 3-year periodand that this represents only a small improvement over the last 10 years. Our findings suggest thatmore support is needed if research is to become an integral part of the culture of family medicine.