TY - JOUR T1 - Exemplary family physicians and consultants: empirical definition of contemporary medical practice JF - Canadian Medical Association Journal JO - CMAJ SP - 301 LP - 307 VL - 141 IS - 4 AU - G. R. Langley AU - J. E. Till Y1 - 1989/08/15 UR - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/141/4/301.abstract N2 - To identify the characteristics of exemplary family physicians and consultants, we interviewed 25 family physicians and 25 consultants (5 each in the specialties of internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry and surgery) selected by their peers as being exemplary in their own practice setting. The results indicated that the participants had well-formulated concepts of exemplary practitioners, defining five main categories of performance: clinical competence, relationship with patients, availability, family physician-consultant relationship and a fifth category that included organizational ability and personality attributes. The family physicians and the consultants placed different values on these categories and indicated that these values might change under different clinical circumstances. Their concepts appear to be compatible with, but not restricted to, a model of contemporary medical practice based on an ethic specific to medicine. ER -