A new required clinical clerkship in family medicine at Duke University School of Medicine is described in terms of planning, implementation, and modification in response to students' evaluations. The data demonstrate that family medicine can be taught effectively as a core clinical rotation. (Author/MLW)

Performance objectives, core content, training experiences, and clinical exposure and program evaluations are described for geriatric fellows and house staff members in internal medicine, family practice, neurology, and psychiatry. A modified Delphi study was used. (Author/MLW)

Two surveys show that the use of prepaid health care plans for educational purposes is rising. A review of published studies that have examined the costs of such training is included. (Author/MLW)

Faculty development programs were introduced to help physician-teachers improve their competence in academic skills. The current status of faculty development programs in departments of family medicine were assessed via a questionnaire survey mailed to directors of family medicine residency programs. (MLW)

An evaluation procedure designed to measure the effects of university-organized continuing medical education (CME) courses on participants' prescribing behavior was examined. Copies of prescriptions were analyzed to establish real behavior compared with the physicians' self-reports. (Author/MLW)

Three parallel studies of teaching skills in clinical medical education, undertaken as the basis for faculty development program planning, are reported. The study's design and methodology allow replication at individual institutions for development of programs focusing on specific teaching skills desired. (MSE)

A survey is reported that was undertaken by the Association for Medical School Pharmacology to assess the status of developing clinical pharmacology programs in medical schools in the United States and Canada and to determine why some schools have been unable to mount such programs. Survey questions are included. (Author/JMD)

A modified Delphi survey technique was used to delineate diagnoses, management techniques, and procedural skills in seven subspecialty areas necessary for house officers in a primary care internal medicine training program. The self-evaluation approach provided a longitudinal assessment of changes in the confidence of house officers. (Author/MLW)

A community-based educational network was established to improve the deployment of physicians's assistants away from the original site of training in California's San Francisco Bay Area. The graduates' practice locations for a 7-year period was compared before and after the decentralization of the program. (Author/MLW)

The evolution and structure of the plan is described, along with economic and political factors influencing its development. Comparison of faculty numbers, clinic earnings, salaries, and research funding since 1958 shows rapid initial growth followed by marked slowing of growth. State and federal funding changes have also had significant effects.…

To determine the effectiveness of teaching interpersonal skills in a general internal medicine residency, a program was developed utilizing videotape feedback of hospital house-staff/patient interactions. Fifty-one randomly selected house officers were included in a controlled pre- and post-test study design. The results suggest that such a…