The United States faces an impending shortage of generalist physicians to provide primary care for adults, according to a study published April 29 as a Health Affairs web exclusive.
By 2025, the nation will be short 35,000 to 44,000 adult care generalists practicing family medicine and general internal medicine, say researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia and the Department of Health and Human Services. However, the researchers project an adequate supply of generalist care for children provided by physicians practicing family medicine and general pediatrics.
The researchers make several recommendations to address the impending shortage of adult generalist care that they document. Most important, they say, is modifying reimbursement to foster development of the medical home models put forward in various forms by the generalist physician specialties. The authors also note that shortages could be alleviated if interventions produced four additional generalist graduates in each family medicine and internal medicine residency program annually. Read the abstract.
