Successful rural health delivery factors include group practice, retention of the same health providers for three years, community-oriented focus, integration of non-M.D. providers, and commitment to education within the practice. Academic medical centers with and without area health education centers should expand to serve rural communities…

Describes a model for ambulatory health care training that makes it easier to generalize about and quantify educational costs. The model is built around two major variable sets affecting costs: (1) three cost types (direct, indirect, infrastructure), and (2) factors related to training site and educational activities. It is constructed to show how…

Options outlined for improving health care to rural areas include selective recruitment into medical and other health occupations education, early professional socialization, curriculum reform, and the kinds of technical assistance that academic centers can provide to rural practitioners and caregiver institutions. (Author/MSE)

With the support of outreach library services and visits by university-based faculty, area health education centers improve a rural community's ability to recruit, retain, and keep up-to-date primary care physicians and other health manpower. North Carolina is an example of this enhanced professional environment. (Author/MSE)

Efforts of the Health Resources and Services Administration to combat and ultimately prevent domestic violence are discussed. In collaboration with states and communities, the agency has programs to strengthen the health care infrastructure, support direct community-based service delivery, and educate health care providers. A comprehensive…

A study involving over 480 interviews in five diverse communities (Atlanta, Georgia; Duluth, Minnesota; Providence, Rhode Island; Riverside, California; Roswell, New Mexico) identified barriers facing physicians and other health care providers in identifying, treating, and referring victims of family violence, and illuminated the relationships of…

When physicians ascribe errors to systemic causes, they may be less likely to modify future behaviors and more likely to repeat past errors. Academic medical centers should balance protecting patients from errors that a systems approach can identify against providing optimal education for house officers by teaching them to focus also on personal…

A University of British Columbia course in health care ethics, open to students from all health-care fields, encourages students to participate in interdisciplinary health-care decisionmaking in their future practice by providing an opportunity to study ethics together during professional training. The course objectives, organization, content, and…

This paper outlines forces that are intensifying change in health care delivery and describes institutional obstacles preventing medical schools' adjustment of their educational offerings. Health professions education institutions are urged to develop centers for determining regional and local workforce needs and subsequently establish regionally…

This paper proposes structural reforms in the U.S. health care system based on the need for (1) workable, affordable solutions; (2) preserving and strengthening the biomedical research enterprise; (3) increased minority participation in science and the health professions; and (4) a culture of character emphasizing health promotion and disease…

Describes proceedings of a meeting of the Association of American Medical Schools' Forum on the Future of Academic Medicine, focusing on ways in which medical schools can and are responding to changing, more competitive marketplaces for health services while sustaining their missions; the health care industry perspective; and characteristics of…