Physicians in practice try in many ways to keep up with the rapidly expanding body of pediatric knowledge. We read the current literature to learn what researchers all over the world are doing. We attend national conferences, meeting colleagues from all parts of the United States. We attend lectures and staff conferences at local teaching hospitals and medical societies, to confer with and to listen to other physicians to whom we at times may refer patients.
Thus, we keep abreast in a general way of what may be termed the principles of prac tice in all parts of the world; but do we know anything at all about what's going on in the office down the street, the one around the corner or in any other office similar to ours in communities much like ours? How do our colleagues in practice handle certain prob lems ? Do they see the same kind of patients that we do? Are we prescribing too many antibiotics? Are we going overboard with drugs?
Clinical Pediatrics,
a journal specifically oriented toward men and women engaged in the private practice type care of children, shares this curiosity. Articles about private practice are frequently featured. The following solicited study is an example.
R. G. Arnhold and Alan R. Freedman have individually contributed analytic articles in the past two years about their clinical observations.1 Inasmuch as prescription writ ing by doctors is a topic of perennial interest, Clinical Pediatrics asked these pediatricians at opposite ends of the country to survey and prepare a comparison of their prescription writing habits. This article presents a revealing synthesis of both sets of data.—Editor.
