Reviews the rationale for including prevention in the clinical medicine clerkship. Summarizes current guidelines, presents examples of curricula in several medical schools, and proposes a future direction that stresses integrating teaching preventive medicine into internal medicine clerkships and across the entire four-year medical curriculum. (DB)

The number of publications per year produced by a department of internal medicine faculty is analyzed. Publication output was correlated with sectional organization of a department of medicine, the location of faculty assignment, the age of the faculty member, and the change of career goals. (Author/MLW)

In response to the perceived need for primary care physicians, two major changes in internal medicine training have occurred: (1) a third year of general training was required for internal medicine board certification and (2) many hospitals developed primary care internal medicine residencies with an increased emphasis on ambulatory training.…

Results of McGill University's program to encourage early specialization in medicine, surgery, psychiatry, and family medicine showed that: students chose the medicine specialty with increasing frequency; poor performance on licensing examinations may have resulted; the process did not lead to an early career choice; and students did not use…

The value of giving instructional feedback on all test items to medical students following an examination is studied. Also examined is the relative effectiveness of two modes of feedback delivery--oral and written--and the manner and extent to which students use the feedback provided. (JMD)

A study was conducted to assess the knowledge of nutrition of family practitioners and general internists and first- and second-year medical students before they had received medical school instruction in clinical nutrition. The physicians scored better on topics most heavily researched and worse on less heavily investigated topics. (Author/MLW)

This book presents the history of the practice of medicine in Utah by tracing the development and work of those at the University of Utah's medical school from 1940 to 1990. The history is told through the reflections and memories of many different physicians who worked at the school. The chapters written by these contributors are organized…

The main objective of the general internal medicine program at the University of California, Los Angeles, Center for the Health Sciences, was to prepare physicians to have humanistic attitudes and skills in dealing with patients. A patient satisfaction survey was used to evaluate the program. (MLW)

The outcome of a simulated clinical problem (drug-induced agranulocytosis) was compared with the outcome of similar cases in real medical service. The total performance of 100 sixth-year medical students at the end of their clerkship in internal medicine resulted in a mortality of 10 percent in the simulation exercise. (Editor/LBH)

A pilot program at the University of California, Davis, that incorporated skilled nursing facility training into the required curriculum of their primary care internal medicine residency is described. The goal was to increase the residents' knowledge in the care of geriatric patients. (MLW)

Results of a survey to document the nature and volume of ambulatory care in the community, based on an assessment of the visit, indicate that nearly four of five ambulatory visits made to physicians are for primary care and that all physicians, even the most specialized, provide a substantial amount of primary care. Implications for medical…

Information about the consultative practice of nephrology in a community environment was gathered and used to speculate about improvements that could be made in the training of nephrologists in academic medical centers, based on their knowledge of such training. (Author/MLW)

A trained research assistant used a structured observation form to observe hospital attending rounds, measuring the use of population perspective (risk-factor assessment, prevention, epidemiology, social aspects of illness) during internal medicine case presentations. Results indicated this perspective was raised more frequently when a generalist…

A study investigated the construct validity of three methods for assessing clinical performances of internal medicine clerks: a clinical evaluation form completed by faculty and residents, an objective structured clinical examination, and the National Board of Medical Examiners medicine subject test. Results suggest a significant but…

This study compared the analytic scores on an essay test of clinical judgment generated by nonphysician readers with those of physician readers. Generalizability theory was applied to determine the number of essays and scorers required to reach specified levels of reproducibility. Results suggested that with training nonphysicians could…