DISCUSSION TOPIC:

Trends in Residency Clinical Data

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Clinical experiences in residency have a powerful impact on preparation for autonomous practice. Future practice patterns and scope of practice are both heavily influenced by the clinical training environment to which a resident is exposed. Family Medicine represents the discipline with the most emphasis on community, practice-based education, with a primary outcome of preparation for independent practice in primary care. Ten years ago the FM Review Committee recommended that family medicine residency programs ensure that programs place additional emphasis on pediatric and prenatal care, among other things. The ACGME collects specialty specific data each year on all programs through the Accreditation Data System. This data is tied to key clinical educational experiences required for residency training. As this is required for accreditation, the data set is a robust and consistent representation of the entire GME community. Data required from Family Medicine programs includes resident continuity visits, Family Medicine Practice demographics, delivery numbers for total vaginal and continuity deliveries, the most common diagnoses seen by residents in the ambulatory and adult inpatient and pediatric inpatient settings, as well as the average daily inpatient load for residents in those settings. The most commonly performed and required procedures are also listed. The data trends for family medicine over the last ten years, will be critical in informing the writing of future program requirements.