Family medicine's place in predoctoral medical education: a survey of US medical school deans and department chairmen.

Family medicine faculty at medical schools throughout the United States have stated that their specialty should be recognized as a required part of the predoctoral medical curriculum. Other medical faculty members have expressed disagreement. Support for family medicine as an integral part of medical education can be found in several sources, among them the Flexner Report and the Report of the Panel on the General Professional Education of the Physician (GPEP). A survey of deans of US medical schools and department chairs of family medicine at the same schools highlights the divergent views of the place of family medicine in predoctoral medical education. Family medicine faculty must argue convincingly that medical education should not be limited to an information transfer process before they will succeed in having family medicine recognized as a required part of medical education throughout the country.