COMMENTS AND CORRECTION

Comments submitted for publication must be typed double-spaced, and text length must not exceed 500 words. Com-plete references must be furnished, as specified in "Infor-mation for Authors " (page 1-6). Specific permission to publish should be appended as a postscript. Publication depends on availability of space: we give preference to comment on recent content and to new information. Let-ters for this section should be concise—the Editor reserves the right to shorten them and make changes that accord with our style. Internal Medicine: Training and Testing TO THE EDITOR: I commend the efforts of the American Board of Internal Medicine in expanding the medical residency program to include greater out-patient expe-rience and exposure to other areas of medicine such as office gynecology and musculoskeletal medicine. Of con-cern to me is that this emphasis is being put on a shortened internal medicine residency, that is, three postgraduate years. These experiences were available during the "old" rotating internship, where outpatient gynecology was seen during the "OB-GYN " rotation, musculoskeletal medi-cine seen on orthopedics, and evaluation of the acute abdomen experienced in the emergency room and general surgery rotations. To now incorporate part of this training into a total three-year program, however, requires that some portion of the "old " medical residency must be shortened: either the general ward rotation or the time previously spent in subspecialty rotations. In either event, the change would further dilute the training of the new general internist. Four years of medical school does not produce a physician. After the year of rotating internship, a physi-cian began to emerge. And, after three years of residency, a solidly based general internist was developed. It is not fashionable to talk about internships and three-year resi-dencies anymore, but something very basic has been lost in the present scheme. The paradox may be that in at-tempting to strengthen the image of the general internist as a primary physician, we may be weakening it