A Quality Improvement Project in Family Medicine Residency Training: Improving Preeclampsia Prevention Through Risk Factor Screening and Low-Dose Aspirin.

Providing aspirin during pregnancy is a critical intervention proven to reduce the rates of preeclampsia in patients at risk. This quality improvement project prepared family medicine residents to use public health strategies to improve screening of pregnant patients at risk for preeclampsia in an underserved population. A preeclampsia awareness campaign was launched utilizing a publicly available toolkit, while a multidisciplinary team implemented systemic clinical changes to increase the rates of preeclampsia risk factor screening and aspirin prescription to prevent preeclampsia. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(S4):S318-S321. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307667).

Harmonizing the Tripartite Mission in Academic Family Medicine: A Longitudinal Case Example.

Academic practices and departments are defined by a tripartite mission of care, education, and research, conceived as being mutually reinforcing. But in practice, academic faculty have often experienced these 3 missions as competing rather than complementary priorities. This siloed approach has interfered with innovation as a learning health system in which the tripartite missions reinforce each other in practical ways. This paper presents a longitudinal case example of harmonizing academic missions in a large family medicine department so that missions and people interact in mutually beneficial ways to create value for patients, learners, and faculty. We describe specific experiences, implementation, and examples of harmonizing missions as a feasible strategy and culture. "Harmonized" means that no one mission subordinates or drives out the others; each mission informs and strengthens the others (quickly in practice) while faculty experience the triparate mission as a coherent whole faculty job. Because an academic department is a complex system of work and relationships, concepts for leading a complex adaptive system were employed: (1) a "good enough" vision, (2) frequent and productive interactions, and (3) a few simple rules. These helped people harmonize their work without telling them exactly what to do, when, and how. Our goal here is to highlight concrete examples of harmonizing missions as a feasible operating method, suggesting ways it builds a foundation for a learning health system and potentially improving faculty well-being.

Family Medicine Resident Scholarly Activity Infrastructure, Output, and Dissemination: A CERA Survey.

PURPOSE: Meeting scholarly activity requirements continues to be a challenge in many family medicine (FM) residency programs. Studies comprehensively describing FM resident scholarship have been limited. We sought to identify institutional factors associated with increased scholarly output and meeting requirements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). OBJECTIVES: Our goals were to: (1) describe scholarly activity experiences among FM residents compared with ACGME requirements; (2) classify experiences by Boyer's domains of scholarship; and (3) associate experiences with residency program characteristics and scholarly activity infrastructure. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey. The survey questions were part of an omnibus survey to FM residency program directors conducted by the Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance (CERA). All ACGME-accredited US FM residency program directors, identified by the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors, were sampled. RESULTS: Of the 691 eligible program directors, 298 (43%) completed the survey. The respondents reported that 25% or more residents exceeded ACGME minimum output, 17% reported that 25% or more residents published their work, and 50% reported that 25% or more residents delivered conference presentations. Programs exceeding ACGME scholarship requirements exhibit robust infrastructure characterized by access to faculty mentorship, scholarly activity curricula, Institutional Review Board, medical librarian, and statistician. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the need for codified ACGME requirements for scholarly activity infrastructure to ensure access to resources in FM residency programs. By fostering FM resident engagement in scholarly activity, programs help to create a culture of inquiry, and address discrepancies in funding and output among FM residency programs.

Effects of extending residencies on the supply and quality of family medicine practitioners; difference-in-differences evidence from the implementation of mandatory family medicine residencies in Canada.

I examine the impacts of extending residency training programs on the supply and quality of physicians practicing primary care. I leverage mandated extended residency lengths for primary care practitioners that were rolled out over 20 years in Canada on a province-by-province basis. I compare these primary care specialties to other specialties that did not change residency length (first difference) before and after the policy implementation (second difference) to assess how physician supply evolved in response. To examine quality outcomes, I use a set of scraped data and repeat this difference-in-differences identification strategy for complaints resulting in censure against physicians in Ontario. I find declines in the number of primary care providers by 5% for up to 9 years after the policy change. These changes are particularly pronounced in new graduates and younger physicians, suggesting that the policy change dissuaded these physicians from entering primary care residencies. I find no impacts on quality of physicians as measured by public censure of physicians. This suggests that extending primary care training caused declines in physician supply without improvement in the quality of these physicians. This has implications for current plans to extend residency training programs.

'Oh yes, that is also reflection'-Using discursive psychology to describe how GP registrars construct reflection.

INTRODUCTION: Learners in medical education generally perceive that reflection is important, but they also find that reflection is not always valuable or practically applicable. We address the gap between the potential benefits of reflection and its practical implementation in medical education. We examined the perspective of Dutch GP registrars who (must) reflect for their GP specialty training to understand their participant perspective on reflection. Our aim is stimulating alignment between reflective activities that occur in a medical curriculum and the ideals of reflection as a valuable educational activity. METHODS: We conducted, video-recorded and transcribed seven focus group sessions with GP registrars in 2021 across two Dutch GP educational programmes. We used discursive psychology to analyse the focus group data by focusing on 'assessments of reflection'. We analysed their discursive features (how something was said) and content features (what was said) and related these to each other to understand how GP registrars construct reflection. RESULTS: Participants constructed reflection with nuance; they combined negative and positive assessments that displayed varied orientations to reflection. First, their combined assessments showed complex orientations to norms and experiences with reflecting in practice and that these are not simply negative or positive. Second, GP registrars constructed reflection as a negotiable topic and showed how reflection and its value can be variably understood. Third, through combined assessments, they displayed an orientation to the integration of reflection with other educational tasks, which impacts its value. CONCLUSIONS: Generally, GP registrars speak positively about reflection, but the value of reflection partly depends on its proper integration with other educational tasks. When meaningful integration fails, activities to stimulate reflection can overshoot their own goal and hamper learner motivation to reflect. Developing a healthy 'reflection culture' could mitigate some challenges. Therein, reflection is treated as important while learners also have adequate autonomy.

Video based educational intervention in waiting area to improve awareness about health screening among patients visiting family medicine clinics.

BACKGROUND: Multiple educational modalities have been utilized including leaflet, face-to-face counseling and watching videos in waiting areas for engaging patients. Considering the two challenges of waiting time frustration and lack of health screening awareness, Family Physicians' waiting area are an ideal place to bridge this gap. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of video-based health education intervention in improving knowledge about health screening among patients and their families sitting in waiting area of Family Medicine clinics. METHODS: It was a pre and post quasi-experimental study that was conducted in family medicine clinics located at main campus and Outreach centers of a tertiary care hospital. A total of 300 participants were approached during the six month period. The intervention consisted of an educational video on health screening. The content of the video was taken from the recommended preventive care guidelines from CDC and USPSTF. The pre-and post-intervention knowledge of the participants was assessed through a semi-structured coded questionnaire by an interviewer who was trained in data collection. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 26. Pre and post intervention knowledge adequacy was determined using MacNemar's Chi-square test. RESULTS: Total 300 participants voluntarily participated into the study. Median age of the participants was 28 (IQR = 23.25-36.75) years. Majority of participants were males (56%). Following the intervention, there was significant increase in the proportion of participants (51.3% versus 68%) who had understanding of health screening check-up (p < 0.001). Following the study intervention, there was significant increase in proportion of participants who had adequate knowledge related to diabetes (p = 0.045), hypertension (p < 0.001), cholesterol (p < 0.001), cervical cancer (p < 0.001), colon cancer (p < 0.001) and hepatitis B & C (p < 0.001). No significant improvement in breast cancer related knowledge was observed (p = 0.074). Highest post-intervention increase in knowledge from baseline was observed for hypertension (13.3% versus 63.3%) followed by colon cancer (24.3% versus 59.3%), cholesterol (67 versus 96.7%), hepatitis b & C (56.7% versus 77.3%), diabetes (29.7% versus 48%), cervical cancer (1.7% versus 19%), and breast cancer (7.7% versus 18.3%). CONCLUSION: This study highlighted a pivotal role of an educational video intervention in clinic waiting area to improve awareness regarding health screening among patients and their families. Further interventional community based or multicenter studies are warranted to assess the long-term impact of these educational videos on knowledge and utilization of health screening among adult population.

The transition of general practice into an academic discipline: tracing the origins through the first four professors in general practice/family medicine.

Being the 'mother' of most clinical specialties, general practice is as old as medicine itself. However, as a recognized academic discipline within medical schools, general practice has a relatively short life span. A decisive step forward was taken in 1956 when the University of Edinburgh established its Department of General Practice, and appointed the world's inaugural professor in the field in 1963. During the 1960s, the pioneering move in Edinburgh was followed by universities in the Netherlands (University of Utrecht), Canada (Western University, Ontario), and Norway (University of Oslo), marking the beginning of global academic recognition for general practice/family medicine. Despite its critical role in healthcare, the academic evolution of general practice has been sparingly documented, with a notable absence of comprehensive accounts detailing its integration into medical schools as an independent discipline with university departments and academic professors. Last year (2023) marked the 60th anniversary of Dr. Richard Scott's historic appointment as the first professor of General Practice/Family Medicine. Through the lens of the first four professors appointed between 1963 and 1969, we explore the 'birth' of general practice to become an academic discipline. In most western countries of today, general practice has become a recognized medical discipline and an important part of the medical education. But many places, this development is lagging behind. The global shaping of general practice into an academic discipline is therefore definitively not completed.

Osteopathic Medical Schools Produce an Increasing Proportion of Family Medicine Residents.

The Association of American Medical Colleges reported a shortage of 45,000 primary care physicians in 2020 and projects shortages of 65,000 by 2025 and 104,900 by 2030.1 The shortage has been exacerbated by physician retirement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.2 The increasing deficit is partially because of the decline in medical students entering primary care specialties. Interest in family medicine has been flat for the past 10 years, and only 13% of U.S. allopathic and osteopathic graduates enter Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited family medicine programs.3 Most recent residency matches report that only 9% of allopathic medical students choose family medicine.4 There has been more interest in primary care in osteopathic schools, with 23% of these students expressing an interest in primary care.5.

Assessing the Knowledge and Comfort Level of US Family Medicine Residents Regarding Consenting and Confidentiality in Adolescent Health Care.

OBJECTIVES: Organizations recommend providing confidential adolescent health care to reduce the consequences of high-risk health behaviors such as substance use, unhealthy eating patterns, and high-risk sexual behaviors. Family physicians are uniquely positioned to provide confidential counseling and care to this vulnerable population but must be trained to provide such care. This study describes the impact of formal and informal training on the knowledge of and comfort level in providing confidential adolescent healthcare among a sample of US Family Medicine residents. METHODS: Electronic surveys were distributed to all Family Medicine residents throughout the United States. We used descriptive statistics and χ2 analysis where appropriate to determine the association between resident-reported receipt of training, confidence, and frequency in providing confidential adolescent health care. RESULTS: A total of 714 Family Medicine residents completed the survey. The majority reported no formal training in residency (50.3%). The receipt of formal and informal training in both medical school and residency was associated with a greater degree of comfort in providing confidential adolescent care and a higher likelihood of providing confidential time alone. Those reporting formal training were more likely to always provide confidential care (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Training focused on confidential adolescent health care in medical school or residency was associated with a greater degree of comfort and a higher likelihood of providing confidential adolescent health care.

Abortion and Contraception in Medical School Curricula: A Survey of North American Family Medicine Clinical Curriculum Directors.

Phenomenon: Contraception and abortion care are commonly accessed health services, and physicians in training will encounter patients seeking this care. Curricula that teach contraception and abortion provision during medical school equip medical students with valuable skills and may influence their intention to provide these services during their careers. Family planning is nevertheless understood to be underrepresented in most medical curricula, including in North American medical schools where the laws on providing contraception and abortion have been consequentially changing. This study investigated the prevalence and predictors of contraception and abortion education in North American medical curricula in 2021.Approach: We asked family medicine clerkship directors from Canada and the United States (US) to report about contraception and abortion teaching in their clinical curricula and their school's whole curriculum and to report on associated factors. Survey questions were included in the 2021 Council of Academic Family Medicine's Educational Research Alliance (CERA) survey of Family Medicine Clerkship Directors at accredited North American medical schools. Surveys were distributed between April 29 and May 28, 2021, to the 160 clerkship directors listed in the CERA organization database.Findings: Seventy-eight directors responded to the survey (78/160, 48%). 47% of responding directors reported no contraception teaching in the family medicine clerkship. 81.7% of responding directors reported no abortion teaching in the clerkship, and 66% indicated abortion was not being taught in their school's whole curriculum. Medical school region correlated with the presence of abortion curricula, and schools with high graduation rates into the family medicine specialty reported abortion teaching more frequently. Fewer than 40% of responding directors had received training on both contraception and abortion care themselves.Insights: Contraception and abortion are both underrepresented in North American medical curricula. Formal abortion education may be absent from most family medicine clerkships and whole program curricula. To enhance family planning teaching in North American medical schools, we recommend that national curriculum resources be revised to include specific contraception and abortion learning objectives and for increased development and support for clinical curricula directors to universally include family planning teaching in whole program and family medicine clerkship curricula.

Reflective capacity and context of reflections: qualitative study of second-year medical students' learning diaries related to a general practice course.

BACKGROUND: Reflective capacity is a prerequisite for transformative learning. It is regarded as an essential skill in professional competence in the field of medicine. Our aim was to investigate the reflective capacity and the objects of action (themes) which revealed reflective writing of medical students during a general practice/family medicine course. METHODS: Second-year medical students were requested to write learning diaries during a compulsory course in general practice/family medicine consisting of the principles of the physician-patient relationship. The course included a group session supervised by a clinical lecturer and a 3-day training period in a local health centre. We conducted data-driven content analysis of the learning diaries. In the learning diaries, student observations were most commonly directed to events during the training period and to group sessions. Occasionally, observation was directed at inner experience. RESULTS: The following themes were related to reflective writing: feelings towards the end of life, demanding situations in practice, physician's attitude to patient, student's inner experiences, and physician's well-being. The entries indicated different types of reflective capacity. Three subgroups were identified: 'simple reporting,' 'reflective writing,' and 'advanced reflective writing.' CONCLUSION: Professional growth requires the development of reflective capacity, as it is essential for successful patient care and better clinical outcomes. To develop and enhance the reflective capacity of medical students during their education, the curriculum should provide frequent opportunities for students to assess and reflect upon their various learning experiences.

Simulated subacromial injection instruction improves accuracy and skill level: a model for musculoskeletal procedural training.

BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal (MSK) complaints often present initially to primary care physicians; however, physicians may lack appropriate instruction in MSK procedures. Diagnostic and therapeutic injections are useful orthopedic tools, but inaccuracy leads to unnecessary costs and inadequate treatment. The authors hypothesized that trainees afforded the opportunity to practice on a cadaver versus those receiving visual-aided instruction on subacromial injections (SAI) will demonstrate differences in accuracy and technique. METHODS: During Spring of the year 2022, 24 Internal Medicine and Family Medicine residents were randomly divided into control and intervention groups to participate in this interventional randomized cadaveric study. Each group received SAI instruction via lecture and video; the intervention group practiced on cadavers under mentored guidance. Subjects underwent a simulated patient encounter culminating in injection of latex dye into a cadaveric shoulder. Participants were evaluated based on a technique rubric, and accuracy of injections was assessed via cadaver dissection. RESULTS: Twenty-three of twenty-four participants had performed at least one MSK injection in practice, while only 2 (8.3%) of participants had performed more than 10 SAIs. There was no difference in technique between control 18.4 ± 3.65 and intervention 19.2 ± 2.33 (p = 0.54). Dissections revealed 3 (25.0%) of control versus 8 (66.7%) of intervention injections were within the subacromial space. Chi-Square Analysis revealed that the intervention affected the number of injections that were within the subacromial space, in the tissues bordering the subacromial space, and completely outside the subacromial space and bordering tissues (p = 0.03). The intervention group had higher self-confidence in their injection as opposed to controls (p = 0.04). Previous SAI experience did not affect accuracy (p = 0.76). CONCLUSIONS: Although primary care physicians and surgeons develop experience with MSK procedures in practice, this study demonstrates a role for early integrated instruction and simulation to improve accuracy and confidence. The goal of improving accuracy in MSK procedures amongst all primary care physicians may decrease costs and avoid unnecessary referrals, diagnostic tests, and earlier than desired surgical intervention.

Development, implementation, and evaluation of an undergraduate family medicine program in the United Arab Emirates.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare systems rely on well-trained family medicine physicians who can offer continuous quality services to their communities and beyond. The American Academy of Family Physicians and the World Organization of Family Doctors recommend that medical curricula should have adequately supervised education and training of the learners in family medicine during their preclinical and clinical placements. However, some medical schools don't have a comprehensive family medicine program to prepare graduates who can meet the community needs. This work aims to report the essential steps for the development, implementation, and evaluation of the family medicine program at the College of Medicine at the University of Sharjah in United Arab Emirates. METHODS: We used the Kern's 6-step model to describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of the family medicine program. This includes problem identification, needs assessment, goals setting, educational strategies, implementation, and evaluation. During 2014-2022, we longitudinally collected essential information about the family medicine program from different stakeholders including the feedback of clinical coordinators, adjunct clinical faculty, and medical students at the end-of-clerkship. All responses were analysed to determine the effective implementation and evaluation of the family medicine program. RESULTS: Over the course of 8 academic years, 804 medical students, 49 adjunct clinical faculty and three College of Medicine faculty participated in the evaluation of the family medicine program. The majority of respondents were satisfied with various aspects of the family medicine program, including the skills gained, the organisation of program, and the variety of clinical encounters. The medical students and adjunct clinical faculty suggested the inclusion of e-clinics, faculty development program, and the expansion of more clinical sites for the effectiveness of the family medicine program. CONCLUSIONS: We report a successful development, implementation, and evaluation of the family medicine program in United Arab Emirates with a positive and impactful learning experience. More attention should be paid towards a suitable representation of family medicine program in the medical curriculum with focused and targeted educational plans for medical students.

Advice to future family physicians: findings from qualitative interviews with family medicine residents and early-career family physicians.

BACKGROUND: Canadians continue to report challenges accessing primary care. Practice choices made by primary care providers shape services available to Canadians. Although there is literature observing family medicine practice trends, there is less clarity on the reasoning underlying primary care providers' practice intentions. Advice offered by residents and early-career family physicians may reveal challenges they have experienced, how they have adapted to them, and strategies for new residents. In this paper, we examine advice family medicine residents and early-career family physicians would give to new family medicine residents. METHODS: Sixty early-career family physicians and thirty residents were interviewed as part of a mixed-methods study of practice patterns of family medicine providers in Canada. During qualitative interviews, participants were asked, "what advice would you give [a new family medicine resident] about planning their career as a family physician?" We inductively analyzed responses to this question. RESULTS: Advice consisted of understanding the current climate of family medicine (need for specialization, business management burden, physician burnout) and revealed reasons behind said challenges (lack of support for comprehensive clinic care, practical limitations of different practice models, and how payment models influence work-life balance). Subtheme analyses showed early-career family physicians being more vocal on understanding practical aspects of the field including practice logistics and achieving job security. CONCLUSION: Most advice mirrored current changes and challenges as well as revealing strategies on how primary care providers are handling the realities of practicing family medicine. Multi-modal systemic interventions may be needed to support family physicians throughout the changing reality of family medicine and ensure family medicine is an appealing specialty.

Challenges of care coordination for complex patients among family medicine residents in a community ambulatory clinic: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Care coordination has been identified as one of five focuses of HealthierSG. Family medicine residents are expected to collaborate with other healthcare professionals for complex patients by the end of residency. However, many residents felt that it was challenging to coordinate care effectively among healthcare stakeholders. However, to date, no qualitative studies have explored these challenges. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the challenges encountered by family medicine residents when coordinating care for complex patients. METHODS: This was a qualitative descriptive study in which semi structured in-depth interviews were conducted and guided by a topic guide. Total population sampling of 15 third-year family medicine residents in the National Healthcare Group Polyclinics was performed. The interviews were performed over Zoom and were transcribed. Thematic analysis was subsequently performed to analyse the transcripts. Coding was performed iteratively by two independent researchers. Disagreements were adjudicated by a third coder. A coding framework was agreed upon. Potential themes were then independently developed based on the coding framework. RESULTS: Six themes emerged from the data, namely, interprofessional communications, accessibility, personal knowledge, time constraints, patient factors and caregiver dissent. CONCLUSION: Challenges faced by family medicine residents are multifaceted. While a few are systemic and pertain to the broader healthcare framework, others, such as issues of unfamiliarity with institutional workflows, community resources, and confidentiality, pertain to the microcosm of residency itself. These are reversible areas for improvement. These challenges can be addressed during planning of residency curricula to better equip family medicine residents with coordinating care for complex patients in the future.

Implementation and evaluation of a mentorship program in clinical master in family medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic at the Arabian Gulf University: a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: We implemented a contextualized innovative mentorship program in the Clinical Master in Family Medicine (CMFM) program established in April 2020 at Arabian Gulf University. In this paper, we describe the process of this program and derive the major challenges faced by trainees and related corrective actions and their outcomes on high-risk trainees for optimal performance. METHODS: We conducted a mixed-method longitudinal study of 80 trainees, analyzing information extracted from the Moodle learning platform about five key performance indicators as well as the contents (quantitative and qualitative) of mentoring meeting reports submitted through a validated online form between 2020 and 2022. We analyzed frequencies and themes of challenges and compared trainees' performance according to time and level of risk. RESULTS: The follow-up of all 80 trainees in two cohorts (40 for each cohort) shows that most are female (93.75%) and the mean age is 30.00 ± 2.19 years with a ratio of mentors to mentees of 1 to 5. Meetings are conducted through phone calls, virtually, and face-to-face in 62%, 29%, and 8.3% respectively. The mean number and duration of meetings are 30.88 ± 2.31 and 20.08 ± 9.50 min respectively. Time management is the most reported challenge (41.3%), followed by health, social, and psychological-related issues in 7.6%, 4.6%, and 3% respectively. We extracted four main themes related to trainees, settings of training, e-Portfolio, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The mentorship program captured 12 trainees at high risk for low academic progress (12%) of whom six graduated on time and the remaining had to repeat a few courses the following terms. The performance of the program is stable over time (mean GPA of 3.30 (SE = 0.03), versus 3.34 (SE = 0.05) for cohorts 1 and 2 in the two years respectively, (P = 0.33). However, it is slightly lower among high-risk trainees compared to the remaining (GPA = 3.35 (SE = 0.03) versus 3.14 (SE = 0.08), P = 0.043) though above the minimum of the threshold of 3 out of 4, required for the master's degree. CONCLUSION: The mentorship program captured the struggling trainees and permitted to implement pertinent corrective actions timely, particularly in the context of a two-year intensive CMFM program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Perspectives on virtual interviews and emerging technologies integration in family medicine residency programs: a cross-sectional survey study.

BACKGROUND: During the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in-person interviews for the recruitment of family medicine residents shifted to online (virtual) interviews. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to gather the ideas about virtual interviews of family medicine applicants (interviewees), and faculty and staff who interviewed these applicants (interviewers), and (2) to describe interviewers' and interviewees' opinions of use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) in the recruitment process as well as during clinical practice. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey study. Participants were both interviewers and candidates who applied to the McGill University Family Medicine Residency Program for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 cycles. RESULTS: The study population was constituted by N = 132 applicants and N = 60 interviewers. The response rate was 91.7% (55/60) for interviewers and 43.2% (57/132) for interviewees. Both interviewers (43.7%) and interviewees (68.5%) were satisfied with connecting through virtual interviews. Interviewers (43.75%) and interviewees (55.5%) would prefer for both options to be available. Both interviewers (50%) and interviewees (72%) were interested in emerging technologies. Almost all interviewees (95.8%) were interested in learning about AI and VR and its application in clinical practice with the majority (60.8%) agreeing that it should be taught within medical training. CONCLUSION: Although experience of virtual interviewing during the COVID-19 pandemic has been positive for both interviewees and interviewers, the findings of this study suggest that it will be unlikely that virtual interviews completely replace in-person interviews for selecting candidates for family medicine residency programs in the long term as participants value aspects of in-person interviews and would want a choice in format. Since incoming family medicine physicians seem to be eager to learn and utilize emerging technologies such as AI and VR, educators and institutions should consider family physicians' needs due to the changing technological landscape in family medicine education.

Characteristics of family physicians with additional training or focused practices in caring for older adults: Population-based retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify FPs with additional training and focused practice activities relevant to the needs of older patients within health administrative data and to describe their medical practices and service provision in community-based primary care settings. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Ontario. PARTICIPANTS: Family physicians with Certificates of Added Competence in care of the elderly from the College of Family Physicians of Canada or focused practice billing designations in care of the elderly. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Evidence of additional training or certification in care of the elderly or practice activities relevant to the care of older adults. RESULTS: Of 14,123 FPs, 242 had evidence of additional scope to better support older adults. These FPs mainly practised in team-based care models, tended to provide comprehensive care, and billed for core primary care services. In an unadjusted analysis, factors statistically significantly associated with greater likelihood of having additional training or focused practices relevant to the care of older patients included physician demographic characteristics (eg, female sex, having completed medical school in Canada, residential instability at the community level), primary care practice model (ie, focused practice type), primary care activities (eg, more likely to provide consultations, practise in long-term care, refer patients to psychiatry and geriatrics, bill for complex house call assessments, bill for home care applications, and bill for long-term care health report forms), and patient characteristics (ie, older average age of patients). CONCLUSION: The FP workforce with additional training or focused practices in caring for older patients represents a small but specialized group of providers who contribute a portion of the total primary care activities for older adults. Health human resource planning should consider the contributions of all FPs who care for older adults, and enhancing geriatric competence across the family medicine workforce should be emphasized.

Virtual interprofessional (VIP) education, a family medicine-occupational therapy-physiotherapy collaborative experience: the perspectives of patients, learners and providers on the opportunities and challenges.

This study examined the experiences of patients, Occupational Therapy (OT), Physiotherapy (PT) and Medicine learners, Providers, and Faculty, in implementing a Virtual Interprofessional (VIP) education initiative in two academic Family Medicine (FM) collaborative clinics. A qualitative descriptive study drew on a strength-based approach as part of the evaluation of the interfaculty VIP initiative. Participants involved in VIP care were conveniently sampled. Interviews were conducted with four patients, and focus groups were held with a total of 16 providers, preceptors and learners in OT, PT and FM. Data were analyzed using content analysis and managed using NVivo12. Four main categories emerged: 1) Challenges in implementing VIP care in FM; 2) Operational challenges, 3) Facilitators of VIP care in FM; and 4) Experiential learning outcomes and benefits of VIP care. This innovation supported knowledge and insights on interprofessional competencies acquired during practice, provided inclusive and comprehensive access to care for patients, and identified opportunities to enhance medical, OT and PT education in VIP care in FM. A collaborative approach with faculty from different disciplines (FM, School of Health Professions: OT and PT) can provide ongoing opportunities for VIP care for patients, and foster IP learning and acquisition of competencies for FM, OT and PT learners and providers.

[Family and community medicine: The most chosen specialty in the MIR]. / Medicina familiar y comunitaria: la especialidad más elegida en el MIR.

Family and Community Medicine is the most offered and chosen specialty in the MIR (Spanish medical residency examination), however, every year its attractiveness is questioned due to not all offered positions being filled and a certain number of resident doctors deciding not to continue in this specialty once started. In this context, some of the proposals to address the problem focus on increasing the supply when the facts show that the challenge lies in addressing the demand by making the specialty and its professional scope more attractive. The problem and its determinants are analyzed in this context by focusing on four elements that may be influencing it: the vocational aspects of medical graduates who pursue specialization, the characteristics of the specialty program and the teaching units where training is carried out, the presence of family medicine in the university as a key element for knowledge and affinity to this specialty from undergraduate studies, and finally, the situation of primary care as the space where training is materialized and the priority setting for the professional practice of future specialists.