An international consultation: the development of family medicine in Vietnam.

An effective international consultation on health system reform can be approached using the five-step process of establishing goals, conducting a needs assessment, defining objectives, developing methods, and designing evaluation strategies. This structure provided guidance to a consultation we provided to the Ministry of Health, Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) to review its current health care delivery system. The consultation examined all levels of health care delivery and medical education.

Teaching the teachers: helping faculty in a family practice residency improve their informatics skills.

Faculty members in family practice residencies are increasingly being asked to help residents develop skills in the use of informatics and evidence-based medicine (EBM). In order to do this successfully the teachers themselves must be skilled in the use of these tools. Recognizing the need for such training, the Maine Medical Center Family Practice Residency Program designed a faculty development project to increase knowledge and skills in the use of information technology.