Uncloaking family medicine research: so much to know, so little time

In their article “A Small Percentage of Family Physicians Report Time Devoted to Research,” Voorhees et al1 estimate that only 4.9% of the 28,505 board-certified family physicians in the United States who completed a census before taking the maintenance of certification examination in 2007 to 2009 reported spending any time on research. Of the 4.9% who reported doing research, 3.9% said they spent <10% of their time in research, and only 0.3% reported conducting research during >50% of their time. The authors concluded that most research by family physicians was done in urban areas and by medical school/residency faculty.