Family medicine
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Distance learning is a feasible and effective method of delivering education, especially in rural settings. Few studies focus on remote learning in graduate medical education. This study explores remote didactic practices of rural family medicine programs in the United States. ⋯ There is potential for improving shared remote didactic sessions between rural and urban sites for family medicine RTTs, which may enhance efficiency of curriculum development across sites and maximize opportunities for bidirectional learning between urban and rural sites.
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Public health training became particularly important for family medicine (FM) residency training programs amid the COVID-19 pandemic; the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME IV.C.19) requires a structured curriculum in which residents address population health. Our primary goal was to understand if, and to what extent, public health interventions trainings were incorporated into FM residency training programs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized programs with more resources (eg, university affiliates) would be better able to incorporate the training compared to those without such resources (ie, nonuniversity affiliates). ⋯ FM residency programs were able to provide some public health interventions training during the pandemic. With increased support and resources, FM resident training curricula may better prepare FM residents now in anticipation of a future pandemic.
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Emerging evidence suggests that running gait retraining plays an important role in the treatment and prevention of running-related injury, yet it remains unclear how gait retraining is being utilized by family physicians with their patients. By surveying family physicians and residents, this study is the first to investigate the frequency of gait retraining discussions with patients with running-related injuries, barriers to these discussions, and physician confidence and perceived value in engaging in these discussions, so as to better inform family physician training on this subject. ⋯ Family physicians find value in discussions of running gait retraining with their patients, but discussion frequency and physician confidence are low. Educational interventions increasing physician knowledge and the development of non-time-intensive approaches would be best suited for improving confidence and discussion frequency for this valued skill.
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Virtual residency interviews during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic posed unique challenges to students and residency programs in the United States. We evaluated fourth-year medical students' perceptions of the virtual format and social media use to help select residency programs. We also assessed applicant utilization and perceived usefulness of our social media content. ⋯ Most applicants to this family medicine residency program used social media to gather information, but they expressed worry that it was enough. Virtual interviews are likely to remain postpandemic, creating challenges for residency programs and especially for their hopeful applicants. Programs seeking to provide well-rounded information for applicants should maintain a social media presence as part of their recruitment practices.
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Stay-at-home orders, social isolation recommendations, and fear of COVID-19 exposure have led to delays in children's preventive health services during the pandemic. Delays can lead to missed opportunities for early screening and detection of health problems, and increased risks for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Understanding prevalence of and reasons for missed, delayed, or skipped preventive health services is important for developing strategies to achieve rapid catch-up of essential health services. ⋯ Physician office closures and concern about COVID-19 exposure resulted in over one-quarter of parents delaying preventive services for their children since the pandemic began. Coordinated efforts are needed to achieve rapid catch-up of preventive services and routine vaccines.