From the Association of Family Practice Residency Directors INTEGRATING SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY INTO

Research and scholarly activity are important components of family medicine education.1 Whereas research refers to the process by which knowledge is tested or developed, scholarly activity usually incorporates a thorough, critical collection of knowledge. Many residency program directors are challenged to include a research curriculum into their already busy family medicine programs. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), through the Core Competen-cies, recently introduced additional required goals for residency programs. Several goals involve incorporat-ing scholarly activity into the patient care experience. Of the 6 core competencies, practice-based learning and improvement and systems-based practice address using scientifi c evidence to improve patient care. Practice-based learning and improvement require residents to investigate and evaluate their own patient care and improve upon it after appraising and assimi-lating scientifi c evidence. Systems-based practice requires that residents show an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger context of health care and are able to use system resources to provide opti-mal patient care