The Western journal of medicine
-
In this article, as part of an evaluation of the future of medical education in California, we characterize the distribution of disease and injury in California; identify major factors that affect the epidemiology of disease and injury in California, and project the burden of disease and injury for California's population to the year 2007. Our goal is to elucidate the major causes of illness and disability at present and in the near future in order to focus state resources on the interventions likely to have the greatest impact. Data from various governmental agencies were utilized; the base year, 1993, is the most recent year with sufficient information available when this report was prepared. ⋯ A projected 28% population increase by 2007 will yield a corresponding increase in the absolute level of disease cases and death; a disproportionate increase in younger and older groups will yield increased conditions affecting young (unintentional injury, AIDS) and older (heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes mellitus) people. Californians should experience overall improved health in coming years, reaping benefits of reduced environmental and behavioral risk factors as well as improved medical treatment and rehabilitation. Coordinated strategies for health promotion, disease prevention, delivery of medical treatment, and rehabilitation are needed to maintain and improve present levels of health across the life span.
-
Graduate medical education has been criticized for failing to adequately prepare young physicians to enter the workforce upon completion of their training. In addressing this criticism, the author makes arguments both for and against this assertion. Broad qualitative changes (graduate medical education training position allocation, subspecialists' role in health care delivery, educational quality, faculty development, and faculty promotion) that graduate medical education has undergone and is undergoing are discussed. ⋯ Innovations in graduate medical education that are being introduced as well as those that should be tried are discussed. Finally, the author asserts that although residency education should not be vocationally driven by the needs of managed care organizations, a powerful opportunity exists for collaborative educational research between academic medicine and managed care organizations. In a health care environment undergoing rapid changes, the primary goals of graduate medical education have not significantly changed: to produce compassionate physicians with a passion for lifelong learning who have leadership skills, are critical thinkers, skilled at self-assessment, and able to adapt to the needs of the health care marketplace.
-
What do patients want from their physicians? This article reviews research on the role of the physician attained through surveys of the public and of physicians. The results from the two groups are surprisingly similar; communication is seen as an essential component of the physician's role. ⋯ This paper reviews previous research on the importance of effective communication to patient satisfaction, adherence, and the outcomes of treatment, and it considers ways in which physician-patient communication is being affected by recent changes in the health care system. Suggestions for medical education and for the structure of primary and specialty patient care are offered.