Primary Care Pediatricians

Lately, the relatively low proportion of physicians who practice primacy care medicine has concerned many, yet exact figures are lacking, given the variation in the methods used for calculation. To this end, we recently surveyed US pediatric residency programs about their residents who finished training in 1992. This was accomplished through the aid of many of the program directors and of members of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Through our correspondence, 60% of the programs provided the following information: approximately 55% of graduating residents were planning to enter pediatric practice directly and 42% were planning to enter a subspecialty fellowship.