title: Developing strategic plans for academic general internal medicine.
abstract: There is an increasing need to train more primary care physicians. Therefore, it would be advantageous for academic general internal medicine (GIM) to develop strategies to meet these demands. Our GIM division developed a strategic planning process with the participant groups being the division faculty, a pertinent literature review (the surrogate expert), and selected medical administrators. The IDEALS systems design provided the conceptual framework for the strategic planning process. This process used the Delphi technique to develop the theoretically ideal work system based on the division's vision for its future role, and the Nominal Group Process Technique to create the recommended work system, using the Delphi results. The strategic planning process was economical and division faculty agreed that it was useful.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas 75235-8889, USA.
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Coyle
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Battles
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Tysinger
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reed
mesh_terms: D003697:Delphi Technique; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D014481:United States