Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:Introduction to Health Care and Public Health in the U.S.
Unit:Delivering Health Care - Part 2
Lecture:Outpatient Primary and Secondary Care
Slide content:Primary Care Crisis Contributing Factors - 2 More than 80 percent of graduating medical students carry educational debt Specialists are better compensated than primary care physicians Fewer U.S. graduates enter family medicine Recent years have more positive statistics 16
Slide notes:Some numbers help explain the crisis in primary care. More than eighty percent of graduating medical students carry an educational debt, and about five percent of all medical students graduate with a debt of more than two hundred thousand dollars. Given that specialists are better compensated than primary care physicians, it seems logical for graduating medical students to consider careers in medical specialties over primary care. The number of U.S. graduates entering a family residency program dropped by fifty percent between 1997 and 2005. Statistics in recent years are more positive. From 2009-2016, the American Academy of Family Physicians has seen a small but steady increase in the number of Family Practice residencies filled by medical students. 16