What factors influence a family physician's decision to refer a patient to a specialist?

Introduction: Variability in the referral patterns of primary care physicians is well established. The objective of this study was to determine which factors have the most impact on a family physician's decision to refer a patient.

Methods: In March 2002, surveys were mailed to 1200 randomly selected members of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP) and 1200 randomly selected members of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).

A practical method for increasing scholarly activity in an academic family medicine department.

Background: Providing a stimulating environment designed to increase scholarly activity is becoming increasingly difficult in today's academic medicine departments. This article was written to communicate methods and results of a practical program designed to increase scholarly activities in an academic medicine department.

Description: A straightforward program was developed and implemented with the objective of increasing scholarly activity in an academic medicine department.

A divisional approach to enhancing research among osteopathic family practice residents.

There is an increasing demand to expose osteopathic family practice residents to research. Within the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth-Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Division of Education and Research (DEAR) was developed in 1999. The primary focus of DEAR is to provide the necessary resources and knowledge for faculty members and residents to conduct research and accomplish scholarly activities.

Using an Internet grant and scholarship notification service as a research tool.

By using specific key words, clinicians can use an Internet database service to identify federally funded grant and scholarship opportunities--opportunities more frequently sought by basic scientists. The authors hypothesized that such an Internet service could be used as a research tool to examine and compare the clinical research preferences of potential medical and bioscience investigators. The authors selected 577 key words from an online key word thesaurus used by both the federal government and ScienceWise.

Health status and satisfaction of patients receiving ambulatory care at osteopathic training clinics.

Little is known about the health status and level of satisfaction of patients receiving care at osteopathic training clinics. Previous studies report favorable responses to medical student participation in ambulatory clinics. The health status and level of satisfaction for 2700 patients attending six family medicine training clinics at a college of osteopathic medicine were measured from 1996 through 1998.