This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Quality of Care, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: I am concerned that some readers might interpret the role of surgical residents in American outpatient care as being uneducational and not contributory to patient care when compared with the experiences in third-world settings described in Dr Capriotti’s essay "Clinic."¹

This week in my own surgical clinic, the attentive and comprehensive preoperative work of residents led to discovery of an unsuspected abscess on examination of one patient, and identification of coronary insufficiency on interview of another, both of which had major impact on the subsequent courses of these patients. Far from perfunctory, the surgical assessments and preoperative history and physical examinations needed to satisfy legal, regulatory, and payer requirements are clinically indispensable. Synthesis of a comprehensive medical profile permits thorough evaluation of the problem and assessment of the overall medical condition, including the relative risks and benefits of potential interventions; it thus serves as the basis . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Amy L. Friedman, MD
amy.friedman@yale.edu
Department of Surgery
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, Conn

RELATED ARTICLE

Clinic
Joseph A. Capriotti
JAMA. 2004;292(9):1017-1018.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT