Background: Family medicine has struggled to gain stature among academic medical disciplines. One factor has been the paucity of quality family medicine research.
Methods: Two hundred eight full-time physician faculty members at family practice residency programs completed a survey that focused on demographics, training, experience, professional activities, and factors that motivated them to select academic careers. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine if any of these factors was associated with increased time spent on research.
Results: Faculty members who spent 10% or more of their professional time on research were more likely to be fellowship trained, employed in university training programs, have more academic experience, and to cite the opportunity to do research as a factor motivating them to enter academic medicine. However, when multivariate analysis was performed, the only significant factor that predicted that a faculty member would devote 10% or more time to research was having an interest in research when first seeking a position in academic medicine.
Conclusions: The amount of time that family medicine faculty members dedicate to research is related to a strong interest in research when seeking their academic position. Fellowship training and an academic environment may have assisted faculty in performing research, but were not independent predictors of future involvement in research.