April 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 4 |
OB training and the Titanic
To the editor:
I wanted to respond to the February 2002 FP Report article "Should OB Training Remain a Residency Requirement?" During my residency training in 1970, a number of preceptors assured me that "surgical care in family practice isn't going away," but of course it did. Medicine had changed during the '50s and '60s. It no longer made sense to train all FPs in surgery, and our specialty's founders made surgery training optional.
Things also have changed during the '80s and '90s. Women usually have one or two babies, not four to eight. The technology, the malpractice climate and young physicians' desire to place more importance on family have been major changes. Almost four out of five FPs don't do OB, and we're still debating whether it should remain a residency requirement. The number of medical students matching in family practice has been going down, and we wonder why. The Titanic is sinking, and we need to quit playing our old songs and get serious about how to save family practice.
Bill Manahan, M.D.
Mankato, Minn.
JFP doesn't just focus on original research
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To the editor:
We applaud AAFP's decision to co-sponsor the new Annals of Family Medicine. However, I'd like to correct the January FP Report story that said the need for such a journal had increased because the "Journal of Family Practice has shifted from a focus on entirely original research to an emphasis on articles translating research into practice."
JFP has never focused entirely on original research. For example, we publish clinical review articles in the series "Applied Evidence." We support the academic work of the Family Practice Inquiries Network financially and by publishing their work in "Clinical Inquiries." We have also published over 600 POEMs (evidence-based summaries of Patient-Oriented Evidence that Matters), introducing the concepts of evidence-based medicine and information mastery to thousands of clinicians.
We have pioneered "electronic long/print short" publication for articles that speak to researchers rather than practicing clinicians, a way to make the best use of limited editorial pages and better serve international readers. And we are proud to be the leading journal of original family practice research and have no plans to decrease this emphasis.
We look forward to assisting the new editor as he or she defines the mission of Annals of Family Medicine.
Mark Ebell M.D., M.S.
Editor,
Journal of Family Practice
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Copyright © 2002 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.