Family practice
Article Abstract:
Funding for research in family practice is negligible, but significant research efforts have nevertheless been carried out by successful cooperation between academic physicians and community-based family physicians. These research efforts focus on the practical aspects of screening for various types of ailments, and the range of disorders that may be associated with common complaints such as back pain. For example, high serum cholesterol is known to confer significant risk of heart disease, and high serum cholesterol may be inherited in some families. However, if high serum cholesterol is diagnosed in parents, the chances of finding a similar high cholesterol level in their children is small, which makes the usefulness of screening the children questionable. Important aspects of family practice include both screening for cancer, such as breast and cervical cancer, to detect malignancy in its early stages, and encouraging behavioral changes that may help prevent some serious diseases. Family practice is not currently attracting the majority of medical students. Student interest in the primary care of patients is declining, while society continues to send mixed signals. At the same time the importance of primary care medicine is being stressed, more money and prestige still go to other specialties. In 1992, the Medicare Resource-Based Relative Value Scale goes into effect; this new payment system is designed to help eliminate the disparity in payment allotted among different medical specialties, and may improve the overall quality of medical care in the US. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1991
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Physician supply policies and health reform
Article Abstract:
The public and eventually the medical community supported federal funding for medical education during the 1950s and 1960s as a result of the physician shortage after World War II. The situation changed during the 1970s as the number of physicians increased. The Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee was established in 1976 to examine the association between the supply of and demand for physicians. Debates about health care reform in the 1990s have included little discussion about physician supply policy. Physicians are important to every aspect of health care provision, and they need to assume a leadership role in health care reform. Those involved in planning of health care reform need to focus on the supply of and demand for physicians and the training of new physicians. Despite a significant increase in the number of physicians, more are needed to practice certain types of medicine and in certain geographical locations. Changes are needed in the funding of medical education and amount of support provided by the federal government.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1992
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