Impact of Residency Training Redesign on Residents' Clinical Knowledge.

Background And Objectives: The In-training Examination (ITE) is a frequently used method to evaluate family medicine residents' clinical knowledge. We compared family medicine ITE scores among residents who trained in the 14 programs that participated in the Preparing the Personal Physician for Practice (P4) Project to national averages over time, and according to educational innovations.

Methods: The ITE scores of 802 consenting P4 residents who trained in 2007 through 2011 were obtained from the American Board of Family Medicine.

The rise of electronic health record adoption among family physicians.

Purpose: Realizing the benefits of adopting electronic health records (EHRs) in large measure depends heavily on clinicians and providers' uptake and meaningful use of the technology. This study examines EHR adoption among family physicians using 2 different data sources, compares family physicians with other office-based medical specialists, assesses variation in EHR adoption among family physicians across states, and shows the possibility for data sharing among various medical boards and federal agencies in monitoring and guiding EHR adoption.

Method: We undertook a secondary analysis of American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) administrative data (2005-2011) and data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) (2001-2011).

Declining numbers of family physicians are caring for children.

Despite continued growth of the primary care workforce, profound maldistribution persists among providers available for the care of children. Family physicians (FPs) spend, on average, approximately 10% of their total practice time caring for children; however, given that, among physician specialties, FPs are geographically distributed most evenly across the US population, the self-reported decline in the share of FPs caring for children should be disturbing to policymakers, especially with the looming insurance expansion in 2014.

Rewarding family medicine while penalizing comprehensiveness? Primary care payment incentives and health reform: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

Family physicians' scope of work is exceptionally broad, particularly with increasing rurality. Provisions for Medicare bonus payment specified in the health care reform bill (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) used a narrow definition of primary care that inadvertently offers family physicians disincentives to delivering comprehensive primary care.