General Internal Medicine Consultation

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The past decade of careful direction and stewardship in internal medicine programs has resulted nationally in the development of well-rounded, inhospital tertiary care training and increased provision for ambulatory care experience. However, little emphasis within medicine training programs has been placed on the item that bridges these two disciplines—the general internal medicine consultation. Until this is attended to we risk graduating internists who are incompletely prepared for providing total service to patients, hospitals, and other physicians, since approximately one third to one half of internists' practice activities involve consultations, and a corresponding portion of the internist's day is spent evaluating and following up these patients' conditions.1,2A recent study of 15-year "alumni" of general internal medicine training programs reported that two thirds of them believed their programs had left them "deficient" in terms of consultation skills and knowledge.3 As generalists, all internists must be able to provide competent