A Randomized Controlled Trial of Academic Group Practice

Abstract

To the Editor.— In their article entitled A Randomized Controlled Trial of Academic Group Practice, Goldberg and his colleagues 1 described the merits of a in which ambulatory care is available five days weekly with decentralized registration, an identifiable support staff, more than one examining room per physician, 24-hour telephone answering service for group practice patients, and team discussions of patient care issues. This style of ambulatory care is actually not especially innovative, even in the academic setting, and has been the mode of practice in both university- and community-based family practice residency training programs since the early 1970s. The authors might wish to read the description of the family practice center in the Special Requirements for Residency Training in Family Practice 2 or visit the family practice centers found at most academic medical centers. Such investigation might prompt the authors to add such features as an on-site