Family medicine
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Physicians and basic scientists join medical school faculties after years of education. These individuals are then required to function in roles for which they have had little preparation. While competencies needed to perform in medical school, residency, and practice are defined, there is little guidance for faculty. ⋯ The competencies and time allocations presented here help faculty and institutions define skills needed for particular faculty roles, plan for faculty evaluation, mentoring and advancement, and design faculty development programs based on identified needs.
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Combined internal medicine-pediatrics (med-peds) programs may be competing for the same students who would have otherwise chosen family medicine. The degree to which this is happening is not known. ⋯ The majority of med-peds interns would have chosen internal medicine or pediatrics if med-peds was not available. A small percentage would have chosen family medicine, thus having a minor impact on recruitment. An even smaller proportion would have chosen a non-primary care specialty. A sizable number anticipate practicing in rural areas.
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Randomization in randomized controlled trials involves more than generation of a random sequence by which to assign subjects. For randomization to be successfully implemented, the randomization sequence must be adequately protected (concealed) so that investigators, involved health care providers, and subjects are not aware of the upcoming assignment. The absence of adequate allocation concealment can lead to selection bias, one of the very problems that randomization was supposed to eliminate. ⋯ The goal of masking is to prevent ascertainment bias. In contrast to allocation concealment, masking cannot always be incorporated into a randomized controlled trial. Both allocation concealment and masking add to the elimination of bias in randomized controlled trials.