Articles

Re-evaluation of the Introduction of the Clinical Resident Training System and Its Effect on Medical Offices (Ikyoku) in Japan

Yuko Ito, Hiromi Saito

Abstract

Due to the introduction of the new Clinical Resident Training System introduced in 2004, the destination where interns do residency changed in Japan. Before this system, university hospitals received 70 % of the interns, but by 2008, dropped to 50%. This independence from university hospitals cause to decrease number of interns attached to medical offices (Ikyoku). A questionnaire survey targeting hospital doctors was carried out, and differences between “doctors attached to medical offices” and “doctors not attached to medical offices” were then analyzed. From this, the role of medical offices was hypothesized.As a result, it was suggested that medical offices were places for doctors in specialized fields to write papers in a foreign language or Japanese, in order to widely disseminate their medical achievements. There is concern that fewer papers may be submitted and/or the level of medical services may decrease due to this reduction in human resources in medical offices.

Keywords