Esophagogastroduodenoscopy training in family practice residency program.

Background And Objectives: Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is a procedure that has been gaining interest among family physicians. To determine the extent of EGD training at family practice residences, we surveyed all US family practice residency directors.

Methods: In late 1994, we mailed a questionnaire to the residency directors of all ACGME-accredited family practice residency programs.

Results: A total of 359 programs responded to the questionnaire (87.7%). Eighty-seven (24.2%) programs reported that their residents receive training to perform EGD. At the majority of these programs, residents perform 10 or less EGDs during their residency experience. Programs on the East and West coasts were less likely to provide this training than were programs in other regions of the country. Residents at programs in the South performed significantly more EGDs than did residents in programs in other regions. Southern residents also were more likely to perform these procedures in family practice centers rather than gastroenterology (GI) labs. Those programs whose residents perform more than 25 EGDs were more likely to have family physicians as trainers of this procedure and also were more likely to offer this training at family practice centers instead of GI labs.

Conclusions: EGD training is now offered by a relatively large number of family practice residency programs. However, concern could be raised as to whether these programs provide adequate quantitative experience. Strong regional differences were noted in the availability of this training.