A Questionnaire Study of Leadership in General Medicine: General Physicians in Japan are Facing Challenges in Education and Research.

Purpose: General physicians are required to demonstrate diverse leadership skills depending on their environment. It is essential for them to understand the characteristics of the medical institutions to which they belong and put this understanding into practice. Leadership skills are acquired through experience and training, and their acquisition is a goal in various medical training programs. However, these leadership skills are difficult to acquire because the specific leadership skills required in clinical practice, education, and research are not well defined. For example, in clinical practice, general physicians need to lead initiatives to improve patient outcomes, resource utilization, and the quality of medical care. However, the specific leadership skills required for these tasks are not explicitly defined. Based on the survey results on the leadership types that general physicians value in clinical practice, research, and education, in addition to expert opinions and a literature survey, we aimed to establish the leadership type necessary in general medicine.

Patients and methods: A cross-sectional anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted from February 2 to 29, 2024, using Google Forms sent through email, targeting members of the Japan Society of Hospital General Medicine. The survey comprised multiple-choice and descriptive questions.

Results: Notably, 286 physicians responded to the survey (response rate: 12.5%); 82.9% were males. Of these, 56.3% said they could explain what leadership constitutes, and 57.0% wanted to attend leadership training. When asked about the most-demanded leadership types in each scenario, democratic and transformational leadership were the most selected in clinical practice (52.4%) and in education and research (26.6% and 31.8%, respectively), respectively.

Conclusion: Transformational leadership was the most important leadership type in education and research, indicating that many general physicians face challenges in these areas. Therefore, developing strategies to improve leadership skills in education and research within general medicine is crucial.