The cooperative medical extension program: translation of medical best practices to practicing primary care providers.

摘要

Recently, Grumbach and Mold proposed the creation of a medical extension program, one that parallels the cooperative extension program of the land-grant universities and colleges. The idea expressed in this article is the creation of a cadre of "medical care agents" whose job would be similar to that of the familiar agricultural extension agent, but focused on bringing the best methods of medical practice, such as implementation of long-term-care models, electronic medical records (EMRs), medical learning communities, and team-based practice, to medical practices across the U.S. To further inform this proposal, it seems useful to share some of our experience working with the current cooperative extension program on which such a model might be based and to consider some of the issues of such a proposal based on that experience.