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PROFESSIONAL ISSUESPay for coordinating care tops internists' wish listA task force of the Society of General Internal Medicine offers a vision for the discipline's future.By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. May 10, 2004. General internists, frustrated by the growing number of barriers to practicing medicine and the declining interest in their specialty from U.S. medical students, are the second group in three months to sketch out a plan for revitalizing their specialty. The Society of General Internal Medicine put forth a summary of its plan in the April 20 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. It follows the April release of the Future of Family Medicine project by the American Academy of Family Physicians. "We heard from practitioners just how hard it was to do their jobs," said internist Eric Larson, MD, MPH, chair of the SGIM task force commissioned to draw up a strategy to revitalize the discipline and director of the Center for Health Studies at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle. "We need fundamental reorganization." The top priority is changing the fee-for-service reimbursement system that has become a barrier to providing the type of care generalists do best -- coordinating the care of chronically ill patients. Graduate medical education is also targeted. The SGIM sees a broad and deep knowledge of medicine as critical, along with a mastery of informatics, management and team leadership. The task force's recommendations cover instituting new technologies to help doctors better partner with patients, increase the efficiency of care and ultimately improve outcomes. Leadership skills are important because generalists need to manage the continuous care of patients with multiple, complex, chronic diseases that require treatment from other physicians and health care professionals. [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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