Family Medicine Resident Scholarly Activity Infrastructure, Output, and Dissemination: A CERA Survey

PLAIN LANGUAGE ARTICLE SUMMARY

Original Research

Strong Infrastructure Associated With Scholarly Activity in Family Medicine Residency Programs 

Background and Goal: Family medicine residency programs are essential for training future primary care physicians. The current Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) program requirement for scholarly activity was last revised in 2019 and requires family medicine residents to perform two scholarly projects; one must be a quality improvement (QI) project and the second project type is at the program's discretion. This study aimed to assess the scholarly activity output of family medicine residency programs in the U.S., identify institutional factors associated with increased scholarly activity, and determine how well these programs meet ACGME standards.

Study Approach: The study surveyed family medicine residency program directors from across the U.S. to gather data on their programs’ scholarly activity. The survey covered various aspects, including the types of scholarly work produced by residents, the availability of resources such as faculty mentorship and access to Institutional Review Boards (IRB), and how often residents exceeded the minimum scholarly activity requirements. The study also classified scholarly activities into four categories based on Boyer’s Domains of Scholarship: discovery, application, integration, and teaching.

Main Results:298 program directors completed the survey.

    •    More than one-half of the program directors reported that fewer than 25% of their residents performed more scholarly activity than ACGME minimum requirements. 

• The most common forms of scholarly output were letters to the editor, case reports, and population health projects. 

    •    Only 16.9% of programs reported that more than 25% of their residents published peer-reviewed manuscripts. However, 49.6% reported that over 25% of residents presented their work at conferences, with poster presentations being more common than oral presentations.

    •    Programs that exceeded ACGME scholarly activity requirements were more likely to have robust infrastructure, including access to faculty mentorship, scholarly activity curricula, IRB, medical librarians, and statisticians.

    •    Programs struggling to meet ACGME requirements often lacked the necessary infrastructure to support resident scholarly activity. Despite this, many programs expressed a desire to increase their residents’ scholarly output.

Why It Matters:Residency programs that provide strong support for scholarly activity not only help residents meet ACGME requirements but also prepare them for future challenges in their medical careers. Ensuring that all family medicine residency programs have access to essential resources—such as mentorship, research support, and technical assistance—is important for increasing scholarly output. Establishing these infrastructure requirements can also help address disparities in funding and research productivity among programs.

Family Medicine Resident Scholarly Activity Infrastructure, Output, and Dissemination: A CERA Survey

Bryce A. Ringwald, MD, et al

OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, Columbus, Ohio

Visual abstract showcasing key findings from this study: