Medical Education Futures Study
George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services
Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation
|Welcome to the Medical Education Futures Study (MEFS)!
Welcome to our website. The mission of MEFS is to highlight the social mission of medical education during the current period of medical school expansion and potential major health care reform. The website serves as a vehicle of information and data dissemination for the community of students, educators, practitioners, researchers, policy analysts, policy makers and press. Special thanks to the Macy Foundation, whose generous support made this project possible and the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services which provides us with rich intellectual resources and a home base.
Fitzhugh Mullan, MD
Featured Publications
Who Will Provide Primary Care and How Will They Be Trained?
February 2010 – Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
"In January 2010 the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation convened a conference to address complex issues concerning who will provide primary care and how they will be trained. Participants developed the set of conclusions and recommendations found in this Executive Summary." Read More…
Does Graduate Medical Education Also Follow Green?
February 22, 2010 – Archives of Internal Medicine
In his 2008 research letter, Ebell1 highlights the relationship between residency fill rates and physician specialty salary. Mullan referred to this as the 'white-follows-green law.' In the hope of informing these concerns that hospitals may be responding to financial incentives over workforce needs in their allocation of GME positions, we explored the relationship between physician income and 10-year growth in primary care residency positions vs those in a group traditionally noted for their 'lifestyle' appeal and higher likelihood of driving hospital revenues." Read More…
The Educational Pipeline for Health Care Professionals: Understanding the Source of Racial Differences
Winter 2010 – Journal of Human Resources
"The underrepresentation of blacks in the healthcare professions may have direct implications for the health outcomes of minority patients, underscoring the importance of understanding movement through the educational pipeline into professional healthcare careers by race. Our results emphasize the importance of pre-collegiate factors and of jointly examining the full chain of educational decisions in understanding the sources of racial disparities in professional healthcare occupations." Read More…
Remaking Primary Care: A Framework for the Future
January 2010 – Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
"As U.S. policymakers pursue major reform proposals to improve the quality and affordability of health care, primary care – the foundation of all care delivered in the United States – is in a state of crisis. Through this report, NEHI seeks to highlight the root causes of the crisis in primary care; identify innovations that could enhance its quality and efficiency; and explore changes required in the education of health professionals to better serve the practice of primary care." Read More…
In Legislation / On The Hill
White House Holds Televised Bipartisan Health Care Summit
February 25, 2010 - Washington, DC
Senate Passes Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590)
December 24, 23009 – Washington, DC
President Obama Announces Recovery Act Awards to Build, Renovate, Community Health Centers in More Than 30 States
December 9, 2009 – Washington, DC
House Passes Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962)
November 7, 2009 – Washington, D.C.
House Democrats Release Health Care Bill
October 29, 2009 – Washington, D.C.
Senate Finance Committee Approves America's Healthy Future Act
October 13, 2009 – Washington, D.C.
In The News
As Primary Care Shortage Looms, Doctors Cut Work Hours
February 27, 2010 – USA Today
"Doctors have steadily cut their work hours over the past decade, a new study finds, something that experts say may only worsen the health care situation. And it raises policy questions amid a looming primary care doctor shortage and Congress considering an expansion of health insurance coverage that would mean more patients." Read More…
The Doctor Won't See You Now
February 26, 2010 – Newsweek
"The annual number of American medical students who go into primary care has dropped by more than half since 1997. It's hard to get an appointment with the doctors who remain. In some surveys, as many as half of primary-care providers have stopped taking new patients. The other half are increasingly overworked and harried." Read More…
Kansas Program Targets Rural Students
February 25, 2010 – The Abeline Reflector-Chronicle
Once they've seen the lights of the big city, it's hard to get medical students back to the farm. Each year, the Kansas Scholars in Rural Health program, administered by the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita, selects up to 14 college juniors from rural areas who intend to become physicians in a primary care field, such as family medicine, internal medicine or general pediatrics and then practice in rural Kansas areas." Read More…
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