1) Surveillance on the attitude to the postgraduate degree was performed by a questionnaire in the graduates of Jichi Medical University, who were engaged in community medicine soon after graduating and had not so many opportunities to conduct medical research.
2) More than a half of the respondents had obtained the postgraduate degree after the 9-year mandatory period of engagement as clinical physicians in the local communities.Among the respondents not having the postgraduate degree, 50-60% of them felt the need for the degree.
3) The remarks of the degree holders indicated that objective assessment ability and the scientific point of view acquired in the degree process had favorable effects on their performance as clinicians thereafter. The result suggested that the substantialization of research in the field of clinical medicine was demanded in the graduate school.

Abstract
Objective : To investigate the causes of fever of inpatients hospitalized in the Department of General Practice at Jichi Medical University Hospital.
Methods : We reviewed all medical records of the patients hospitalized in the Department of General Practice at this hospital between April 2003 and March 2004. Patients were selected as the “febrile group” by following criteria, 1) body temperature exceeded 37.5°C on admission, 2) fever and fever of unknown origin (FUO) were included in the clinical problems, and the causes of fever were described.
Results : A total of 464 patients were hospitalized and 221 patients (47.6%) were categorized as the “febrile group”. The most common cause of fever was infection (67.4%), followed by malignant disease (4.1%), collagen disease (3.2%), miscellaneous diseases (10.4%). 26 patients were classified as fever of unknown origin (FUO). Among FUO patients, collagen disease was the most common cause (34.6%), and undiagnosed cases was 26.9% that was similar to past reports. Although the rates of malignant disease and collagen disease were about sixteen percent in each generation from thirties to fifties as the cause of fever, only one patient met the criteria of classical FUO.
Conclusions : The most common cause of fever was infection. Systematic survey including hospitalization is needed early in case an outpatient doesn't cure fever unexpectedly. Noninfectious inflammatory diseases emerge as an important category of the causative disease of FUO.