CURRICULUM CONTENT ON VACCINE-PREVENTABLE DISEASES IN PRIMARY-CARE AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE RESIDENCY PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED-STATES

Physicians miss many opportunities to provide effective vaccines to children and adults because of their uncertainty about all patients for whom vaccines are indicated and their unfounded concerns about vaccine safety or efficacy.1-3 These and other factors have contributed to suboptimal vaccination practices and low vaccination levels. Teaching basic principles about prevention and control of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) during postgraduate medical training may determine subsequent practice patterns.4 To identify the content in postgraduate medical training programs on selected immunization principles and practices and the use of standard resources to update program content, as well as predictors for teaching the various subjects, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (ATPM) executed a mail survey from 1990 to 1991 of all primary care and preventive medicine residency programs in the United States.5 This paper describes the results of the survey. A companion article describes the results of a similar survey of medical schools.6