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To the Editor.—
In response to Dr Bogdonoff's editorial "On Divisions of General Medicine in Departments of Internal Medicine," in the August Archives (135:1127-1128, 1975), I must take exception to his defensive posture a propos contamination of internal medicine departments by residents in family medicine.I submit that although a family medicine resident's assignment to an internal medicine service may be of "short duration," his commitment is not "transitory" and his goal is not concerned with "style" as opposed to "substance." He looks to internal medicine, obviously, to provide him with graduate exposure to the internist's expertise in adult diagnosis and management that subsequently will play an important role in the practice of his (the family physician's) discipline.Where would oncology be with this sort of provincial attitude from departments of pathology and radiology? Where would nephrology reside if it were insulated from urology or hematology from pathology?I suggest