The preventive medicine physician: a national study

Following the 1980 Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee report, postal questionnaires were sent to a random sample of physicians self-designated as preventive medicine specialists primarily in an effort to verify the committee's assumption that preventive medicine is not a clinical specialty. The questionnaires represented each of the preventive medicine subspecialties: general preventive medicine, public health, occupational medicine, and aerospace medicine. After three reminders, 419 out of 942 (44%) responded. Seventy percent of the physicians who responded engage in clinical activities for at least part of their workweek. Preventive medicine is practiced in a wide variety of settings. For the majority of preventive medicine physicians, prevention plays an important role in their practice. They perceive that they practice medicine differently from their colleagues who are not preventive medicine specialists because of their prevention focus. Many of these physicians have made career changes, and some have made many such changes, as board certification in one of the subspecialties does not preclude practice in another subspecialty. The specialty appears to allow considerable flexibility. The preventive medicine physician is prepared to incorporate prevention into clinical practice and seems well equipped to integrate community and individual clinical approaches.