Singaporean Delegation Taps AAFP for Facts on Family Medicine Training, Practice

The Academy hosted a delegation of physicians -- more than half of whom were family physicians -- from Singapore's public and private sector on April 13, when the group spent a full day in the Kansas City, Mo., area learning about family medicine.

The itinerary for the 10-member entourage was arranged by Daniel Ostergaard, M.D., AAFP vice president for international and interprofessional activities, and included a morning visit to the Research Family Medicine Residency Program and its Goppert-Trinity Family Care Clinic in Kansas City, Mo. The group traveled across town to Academy headquarters in Leawood, Kan., for an afternoon briefing with staff from the Academy and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.

The visitors included the president of the College of Family Physicians Singapore, as well as several members of Singapore's Ministry of Health.

"They came to the AAFP because we are the leaders in family medicine," said Ostergaard, adding that the group was exploring possible changes in Singapore's health care and physician training systems and wanted to learn more about how FPs in the United States receive training and practice medicine. He noted that in Singapore, FPs must relinquish care of their hospitalized patients to a hospital-based team.

The group peppered their American colleagues with questions about

Members of the delegation expressed surprise at the willingness of attending physicians in other specialties such as cardiology, pulmonology and nephrology to teach family medicine residents. "I don't think the family physician educators in Singapore have that type of relationship with residents in their medical system," said Stephen Salanski, M.D., program director of the Research Family Medicine Residency Program. "Our visitors were surprised that we don't have to pay our subspecialists large amounts of money to teach residents."

Ostergaard welcomed the opportunity to share cross-cultural information with the Singaporeans. "It's a privilege and a responsibility of AAFP to host delegations of international physicians who are interested in family medicine in the United States," he said. "Even though, in this case, the Singaporean delegation was looking for information from us, we always learn something of value when we listen to and interact with our colleagues from abroad."