THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES BY RURAL FAMILY PHYSICIANS

Background. Although office procedures that involve special training a nd office equipment are often performed by a specialist in an urban se tting, they are increasingly being performed by family physicians in r ural settings. This study documents the prevalence of four such proced ures in rural family practice: flexible sigmoidoscopy, cardiac stress testing, colposcopy, and nasopharyngoscopy. Individual and community c haracteristics of physicians who perform each of the procedures are co mpared with those of physicians who do not. Methods. Data were collect ed on office technology and the characteristics of physicians, their p ractices, and their communities through telephone interviews with 403 randomly selected, rural family physicians and general practitioners i n eight states. Descriptive and univariate analyses were used. Results . Flexible fiberoptic sigmoidoscopy was performed by 57% of the physic ians in our sample. The presence of another physician in the group or in the community who performed this procedure increased the probabilit y of a rural physician performing it. Being male, recent licensure, bo ard certification, and patient volume were also positively associated with the performance of this procedure. Conclusions. This study found evidence of a collegial effect among rural physicians and of a signifi cant number of rural physicians seeking postresidency training in new procedures.