Physician attitudes toward relicensure: the simulated patient option

Primary care physicians in one Southern city were asked to return a mail questionnaire stating their attitudes toward relicensure issues. Respondents overwhelmingly preferred continuing education as the method of creditation for relicensure, but as a second choice preferred the simulated patient procedure to formal examinations. Nearly one half of the respondents agreed to participate in a pilot study of this method. The MD author received more positive replies than the PhD author, possibly because different segments within well matched subsamples were motivated to respond.