Gupta Archna, Kumar Raman, Prasad Ramakrishna, Abraham Sunil, Nedungalaparambil Nisanth Menon, Krueger Paul, Gray Carolyn Steele, Landes Megan, Sridharan Sanjeev, Bhattacharyya Onil
Department of Family and Community Medicine, St. Michaels Hospital, Toronto, Canada.
Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
PLOS Glob Public Health. 2025 Jan 29;5(1):e0004107. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0004107. eCollection 2025.
Family medicine was recognized as a distinct specialty in India in the early 1980s, but it is at an early stage of implementation. There are few training programs, and little is known about family physicians' training, perceptions, and current practices. This paper describes the findings from the first national survey of family medicine in India. We administered the Landscape of Family Medicine in India survey to members of the Academy of Family Physicians of India and used a respondent-driven sampling approach to increase our reach between November 2020 and March 2021. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data. Chi-square tests of independence were used to explore differences between family physicians who completed full-time in-person training versus those who completed part-time, blended or distance training and to look for associations between services provided and the rurality of practice location. We had 272 respondents. 61.0% of respondents completed a full-time in-person residency program, while 39.0% completed a part-time distance or blended-type program. Most respondents reported that postgraduate training in family medicine increased their confidence in practice, their scope of primary care practice, and the ability to work as a team with non-physician primary care providers, irrespective of the type of training. Family physicians appear to engage in comprehensive practice, with 88.9% practicing outpatient family medicine. Our sample found that the proportion of family physicians working in rural areas is higher than the proportion of all physicians in India, with 39.3% of our sample working rurally. Those who work rurally were more likely to offer minor office-based surgeries, casting and splints, and conduct vaginal deliveries. 48.3% of respondents work principally in the primary care sector. Postgraduate family medicine training should be scaled up to support improving gaps seen in primary care and primary health care.
家庭医学在20世纪80年代初在印度被确认为一个独立的专科，但仍处于实施的早期阶段。培训项目很少，人们对家庭医生的培训、认知和当前实践了解甚少。本文描述了印度首次全国家庭医学调查的结果。2020年11月至2021年3月期间，我们对印度家庭医生学会的成员进行了“印度家庭医学概况”调查，并采用了受访者驱动的抽样方法来扩大调查范围。使用描述性统计来描述数据。独立性卡方检验用于探索完成全日制面对面培训的家庭医生与完成非全日制、混合式或远程培训的家庭医生之间的差异，并寻找所提供服务与执业地点农村程度之间的关联。我们有272名受访者。61.0%的受访者完成了全日制住院医师培训项目，而39.0%完成了非全日制远程或混合式项目。大多数受访者表示，无论培训类型如何，家庭医学研究生培训都增强了他们的执业信心、初级保健实践范围以及与非医生初级保健提供者团队合作的能力。家庭医生似乎从事综合实践，88.9%的人从事门诊家庭医学。我们的样本发现，在农村地区工作的家庭医生比例高于印度所有医生的比例，我们样本中有39.3%的人在农村工作。在农村工作的人更有可能提供小型门诊手术、石膏固定和夹板固定，并进行阴道分娩。48.3%的受访者主要在初级保健部门工作。应扩大家庭医学研究生培训，以支持改善初级保健和初级卫生保健中存在的差距。
