Introduction Extramural curricula developed for the purpose of sharing with other institutions have been designed to improve education on important topics in ambulatory care. We sought to assess the usage rates of these curricula among paediatric, internal medicine, and combined medicine-paediatrics residency programmes in the United States.

Methods Surveys on aspects of trainee continuity clinic were sent to paediatric and medicine-paediatrics programme directors in 2012. Surveys contained an item asking respondents about their use of extramural ambulatory care curricula. Since no similar recent data were available for internal medicine, and to verify the accuracy of the paediatric survey data, we queried the editors of four widely used curricula for subscription information. Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated.

Results Responses from paediatric programmes indicated that 48 of 111 (43 %) were using an extramural curriculum, compared with 39 of 60 (65 %) medicine-paediatrics programmes (p = 0.007). Editor query revealed a collective subscription rate of internal medicine programmes (300 of 402, 75 %), which was greater than the subscription rate of paediatric programmes (90 of 201, 45 %) (p < 0.001).

Discussion Training programmes in paediatrics, internal medicine, and combined medicine-paediatrics utilize extramural curricula to guide education in ambulatory care, but internal medicine and medicine-paediatrics programmes employ these curricula at greater rates than paediatric programmes.