Table 7.

Suggested Program Guidelines to Further the Vision and Mission of Family Medicine Resident Education

GuidelineDescription
Flexibility/responsivenessAbility to provide education in areas needed to meet geographical and community needs
Innovation/active experimentationPrograms encouraged to try new methods of education, including 4-year curriculum pilot programs, and to teach the cutting edge of evidence-based medical knowledge
Consistency/reliabilityPrograms provide a basic core of knowledge and produce family physicians who exemplify the values of the health care system articulated by the Institute of Medicine
Individualized to learners’ needs and the needs of the communities in which they plan to servePrograms offer enhanced educational opportunities in areas needed by graduates, such as maternity care, orthopedics, and emergency care
Supportive of critical thinkingPrograms encourage and/or require research and expect a thorough understanding of evidence-based medical practice
Competency-based educationPrograms stress a new paradigm for evaluation of resident performance based on competency assessments
Scholarship- and practice-based learningPrograms integrate scholarship and quality improvement through analysis and interventions built around patient care activities in the continuity setting
Integration of evidence-based and patient-centered knowledgePrograms model knowledge acquisition and processing from both perspectives in the patient care setting
Medical informaticsPrograms go beyond just using an electronic health record (EHR) to modeling the broad-based acquisition, processing, and documentation potential within state-of-the-art informatics resources
Biopsychosocial integrationAn emphasis on the interdependence and interplay among different levels of the system—whether it is the cardiovascular system, the individual, the family, the community, or the larger social context
ProfessionalismPrograms move beyond the simple objectives of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education professionalism curriculum requirements into a comprehensive monitoring and feedback system to residents during the critical developmental period of residency training
Collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to all learningPrograms provide both support and role modeling for the effective use of teams and interdisciplinary approaches to patient care, including the involvement of other trainees in the process