The primary care specialties working together: A model of success in an academic environment

In today's environment of decreasing resources and increasing competition a mong clinical delivery systems, survival and ultimate success require inter disciplinary cooperation and, if possible, integration. Academic leaders at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), have developed a collaborative model in which faculty in family medicine, general internal medicine, and general pediatrics cooperate extensively in education, research, and patien t care. Generalist faculty jointly administer and teach both a four-year "d octoring" curriculum for medical students and an array of integrated curric ula for primary care residents, including a communication skills course. Se veral primary faculty jointly developed a collaborative unit for health pol icy and research, now an active locus for multidisciplinary research. Other faculty worked together to develop a primary care medical group that serve s as a model for interdisciplinary practice at UCI. Recently, the universit y recruited an associate dean for primary care who leads the new UCI Primar y Care Coalition, reflecting and promoting this interspecialty cooperation. This coalition does not represent a step toward a generic primary care spe cialty; UCI's generalist disciplines have preserved their individual identi ties and structures. Yet interdisciplinary collaboration has allowed primar y care faculty to share educational resources, a research infrastructure, a nd clinical systems, thus avoiding duplicative use of valuable resources wh ile maximizing collective negotiating abilities and mutual success.