Academic Credibility of Family Medicine

1
Academic Credibility of Family Medicine Carol P.
Herbert April 14, 2005 Workshop on National
Research Agenda for Primary Care Dead Sea, Israel
2
Myths about Family Medicine

• default choice
• no academic basis collection of disciplines
• primary care practice problems are trivial
• family doctors are uninterested in research
• teach psychosocial fluff

3
Advances

• Departments of Family Medicine in medical
  schools
• Literature of record- international journals
• International meetings, e.g., NAPCRG, WONCA
• Family Medicine organizations
• Family Medicine researchers in multidisciplinary
  teams, leading research on chronic illness (eg.,
  Stewart harris and diabetes)
• Family physicians as academic leaders/ 4 Canadian
  deans in 2005 and several associate/assistant
  deans

4
Challenges

• Undergraduate lack of presence around hard
  subjects and teaching of physical examination
• Increased medical school class size - overwhelmed
  faculty too many students and residents
• IMGs Family Medicine is entry into practice,
  not necessarily their choice of discipline
• Large community-based clinical faculty/small
  numbers of FTEs

5
Challenges contd

• Changing lifestyle/fewer physicians wanting to
  teach
• Difficulty in getting promoted
• Federal research dollars are minimal
• Few family physician researchers on grant panels
• Family Medicine Research seen as unimportant
  (episiotomy trial)
• Getting co-opted studying whats easy rather
  than whats important

6
Opportunities

• Need for undergraduate teachers to teach
  patient-centred clinical method
• Inter-professional education for collaborative
  patient-centred practice
• Need to educate deans about the discipline,
  including our literature
• Need to publish educational innovation (eg., CFPC
  exam)
• Need to celebrate our heroes and heroines