Assessing the need for faculty development in women's health among internal medicine and family practice teaching faculty

Women's health education is an emerging interdisciplinary field that has re cently received national attention. The American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Academy of Family Practice recently have published compet encies in women's health for their residents, with increased attention to g ynecological and mental health issues. Increasing women's health in the cur ricula of internal medicine (IM) and family practice (FP) residents will ce rtainly require faculty development among IM and FP teaching faculty. We re port a multiinstitution needs assessment among IM and FP teaching faculty f or continuing medical education (CME) in multidisciplinary women's health t opics. The survey (n = 100) asked whether faculty desired CME in 30 women's health topics. It also requested rates of referral to specialists for brea st and menstrual problems and performance of tests commonly carried out in the care of women (e.g., endometrial biopsy, colposcopy, skin biopsy, and s igmoidoscopy) as measures of possible need for CME. Of the 69 respondents, 37% were IM physicians and 63% were FP physicians. Among the 30 women's hea lth topics listed, breast cancer treatment alternatives, infertility for pr imary care providers, cervical dysplasia, medical treatment in pregnancy, v ulvar disease, indications for pelvic ultrasound/endometrial biopsy, and me nstrual disorders were of highest interest. The ranking of desirability of topics by IM and FP faculty correlated by .54 (Spearman rank, df = 28, p < 0.01). Analysis of variance revealed a significantly higher interest overal l by IM than FP physicians, 58% vs. 42% (F = 4.1, df = 1, 50, p < 0.05). No ne of the IM teaching faculty performed endometrial biopsy or colposcopy co mpared with 57% of FP physicians, and only 12.5% of internists performed sk in biopsy and sigmoidoscopy compared with 70% of FP physicians (F = 33, nf = 1, 38, p < 0.001). We conclude that faculty development in women's health would benefit resident training in IM and FP, and topics of interest are i dentifiable. The correlation in interests between the IM and FP teaching fa culty might make joint programs successful, although gynecological skills a nd knowledge clearly are needed more by IM teaching faculty. Obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) faculty could be instrumental in improving women's hea lth education among their IM and FP colleagues.