Thirty physicians' perceptions of their rates of prescribing an antianxiety drug were found to differ from their actual rates. When informed of this discrepancy, significant changes in prescribing behavior occurred. Implications for continuing medical education are discussed. (MSE)

A survey to determine the extent to which interdisciplinary health team concepts are being taught as part of the undergraduate curriculum in U.S. and Canadian medical schools is reported. Although the total number of reported programs is small, 53 percent of them were required for all students. (Author/MLW)

The major findings of a 1978 national survey of 4,500 physician's assistants are described. Seventy-four percent of the respondents were working in primary care specialties, and two-thirds were located primarily in institutions. Physician's assistants were more likely than physicians to be working in nonurban areas. (Author/MLW)

Medication noncompliance is seen as an obstacle to successful clinical outcomes of many diseases. An exercise for preclinical medical students at Stanford University is described. Objectives include sensitizing students to the consequences of medication noncompliance, illustrating problems, and evaluating a number of compliance-related issues.…

Further work is needed in identifying strategies to improve rural health services that are most appropriate and cost effective in regions with differing circumstances and needs. Substantial reform of payment systems favoring rural and primary care is essential to the effectiveness of educational reform. (Author/MSE)

A survey of 314 medical students before and after a required third-year internal medicine clerkship found differences between students choosing primary care and subspecialties, while undecided students shifted between those groups on several items. Results suggest the clerkship may affect students' image of primary care. (Author/MSE)

Medical student organizations, such as the American Medical Student Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges' Organization of Student Representatives, and the American Academy of Family Physicians' National Congress of Student Members, are responding to the increased need for generalist physicians, through community-based…

A study of factors influencing medical students to choose primary care careers, in contrast with high-technology careers, found students attracted by opportunity to provide direct care, ambulatory care, continuity of care, and involvement in psychosocial aspects of care. Age, race, gender, marital status, and some attitudes were not influential.…

A system of data recording and retrieval which defines a family practice population of patients is described. The costs of this recording process in nonteaching practices, the use of such data as an educational resource for the training of primary care physicians, and the evaluations of health care delivered are discussed. (Editor/JT)

The President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation points up the lack of a dependable system of ambulatory front-line medical care in the U.S., outlines basic capabilities of the system needed, and suggests the role of foundations and academic centers in developing training programs recast in light of real world situations. (JT)

This study is an attempt to model the similarities of 84 medical schools with respect to their orientations toward applicants qualified for research and applicants interested in delivering primary care or locating in non-urban settings. These characteristics are defined in 17 institutional variables. The patterns of insti(utional similarity are…

The current shortage of primary care physicians demands that medical schools implement ameliorative procedures. Two general approaches were evaluated. It was concluded that only the one advocating medical curriculum manipulation offers a viable direction and that focusing on selecting applicants with certain biographical characteristics has…

Described is a program leading to the B.S. and M.D. degrees in six or seven years that integrates the physical sciences with the basic medical sciences and emphasizes the humanities and social sciences as a necessary component of the physician's education. The selection process aims to identify future primary care physicians in underserved urban…

Similarities and differences between primary care and specialized care are reviewed, based on research in health care. Professional requirements for primary and specialized care are identified, and implications for the scope and type of learning situations needed by undergraduate medical students are suggested. (Author/LBH)

A short, intensive teacher training course for general practitioners is described, including its aims, context and content, and assessment of its effectiveness. Focus is on the need for training doctors with expertise in teaching, combined with an ability to assess patients' psychosocial as well as physical problems. (LBH)