Alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) is recommended for all primary care patients but is underutilized. This project trained 111 residents and faculty in 8 family medicine residencies to conduct SBI and implement SBI protocols in residency clinics, then assessed changes in self-reported importance and confidence in performing SBI and…

Patient health literacy skills are critical to effective healthcare communication and safe care delivery in primary care settings. Methods and strategies to identify patient health literacy (HL) capabilities and provider/staff knowledge, attitudes and beliefs (KAB) regarding HL must be known before addressing provider/staff communication skills.…

A year-long interdisciplinary continuity-of-care elective for second-year, preclinical students in a medically underserved inner-city neighborhood is described. Students were able to learn the skills needed to implement and evaluate long-term health care and to assess the cost effectiveness of various approaches to such care. (MLW)

Data collected as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study of residency programs for training in primary medicine and pediatrics are analyzed. The seven residencies supported by the federal government and the nine residencies supported by the Foundation are compared. A brief description of the programs as they existed in 1978 are…