SPECIALTY PRACTICE OF FAMILY-PRACTICE RESIDENCY GRADUATES, 1969 THROUGH 1993 - A NATIONAL STUDY

Objective.-To describe demographic and practice characteristics of phy sicians who graduated from family practice residency training programs . Design.-Information was obtained from the databases of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Board of Family Practice (A BFP), and the American Medical Association. Data sets were cross-refer enced, and quantitative data from medical membership organizations and the certifying board were summarized. Information regarding medical s chool graduation and family practice residency completion was reported by the participating residency programs, and data on practice special ty were self-designated by the participating physicians. Subjects.-Phy sician graduates of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Educati on-accredited family practice residency programs from 1969 through 199 3. Main Outcome Measures.-Practice specialty designation by graduates of family practice residency programs. Results.-Of the 38 659 physicia ns who graduated from family practice residency programs from 1969 thr ough 1993, 8780 (23%) were women, 2181 (6%) were graduates of colleges of osteopathic medicine, 4777 (12%) were international medical gradua tes, and 33 484 (87%) were certified by the ABFP. Of the 36 088 family practice residency graduates who designated a practice specialty, 32 764 (91%) identified their specialty as family practice, including 32 608 physicians who identified family practice, 129 general practice, 2 1 family practice-geriatric medicine, and six family practice-sports m edicine. Among the 3324 family practice residency graduates (9%) who i dentified themselves as practicing in another specialty, the most comm on specialties were emergency medicine (1446 physicians [4%]) and prev entive medicine (386 physicians [1%]). No other practice specialty was designated by more than 0.5% of family practice residency graduates. Conclusion.-The vast majority of family practice residency graduates a re self-designated as practicing family medicine. These data suggest t hat family practice residency programs are an effective mechanism for the production of generalist physicians.