Background
: Recent studies reported that doctors of different specialty use different diagnostic and therapeutic methods to the same clinical conditions.
Though this difference has significant influence on the quality and cost of medical care, study about this problem was never been done in Korea.

Methods : The diagnostic methods of third year residents in family practice(N=6) and internal medicine(N=6) were compared with respect to "functional gastrointestinal disorder(FGID)", common ambulatory patient problem. One "standardized patient" was presented.

Results : Analysis of the recorded interviews showed that family practice residents took more medical history(p<0.05), ordered more laboratory investigations(p<0.05). There was no difference in the selection of physical examination items. There was difference in the diagnosis reached by these two groups. Six family practice residents diagnosed FGID. In an analysis of the "commonness" of questions asked by internal medicine residents and family practice residents, it was found that internal medicine residents used more common questions.

Conclusion : There were some significant differences in diagnostic and therapeutic strategies between internal medicine and family medicine residents. These findings have implications for the future training of primary care physicians.