A pilot survey study to define quality in residency education.

Purpose: To begin to define indicators of quality in internal medicine residency training.

Method: In 1995, through a modified Delphi process, the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine's Research Committee developed a questionnaire containing 44 items (34 process and ten outcome indicators). The survey was mailed to all 418 internal medicine program directors and a convenience sample of medical residents.

The effect of values and culture on life-support decisions.

Withdrawing life support is always difficult. When patients and health professionals are from different ethnic backgrounds, value systems that form the basis for such decisions may conflict. Many cultural groups do not place the same emphasis on patient autonomy and self-determination that Western society does and find the idea of terminating life support offensive.

Evaluating humanistic attributes of internal medicine residents.

Objective: Methods of assessing humanism in internal medicine residents have not been completely designed or evaluated. This study used patient satisfaction as a measure of humanism, and assessed the validity of using faculty physicians to evaluate residents' humanistic behavior. Residents' ability to assess themselves was also evaluated.

First-year medical students and the aging patient: a curricular model.

First-year medical students at UCLA are introduced to the special health problems of the elderly by a process in which they interview symptomatic volunteers at both extended care and ambulatory care facilities. In. addition, they interview healthy elderly volunteers to gain information on gerontology and lifespan development, with supplementation from selected readings, films, lectures and panels.