Graduate Medical Education

"Local and state officials including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Tuesday a new primary care physician residency program in the city. The program is the first of its kind in the state, officials said, and includes both a community-based health care center ,as well as Danbury and New Milford hospitals -- part of the Western Connecticut Health Network."

"The number of insured Americans is rising, and the fastest growing component of the population is over the age of 65. The increased demand for access to health care services underscores the need for a strong effort to avert the predicted shortage of 90,000 physicians within the coming decade."

"The 14 RTTs in this study each graduated an average of two physicians per year. This rate of output is comparable to that of all 24 RTTs nationwide, which collectively matriculate about 45 to 50 new physicians annually."

"The first doctor we get to know, the doctor who treats the whole family, and the one we want to be like is our PCP (primary care provider). The current generation of residents can relate to the family doctor who always answered our phone calls day or night, patiently addressed our concerns, greeted us warmly during our clinic visits, and attended our major family events."

"Many of the plans to cut the federal budget deficit would drastically reduce the roughly $10 billion in federal support for so-called graduate medical education. Earlier proposals recommended changes that could reduce some support by 30 percent."

"Gov. Nathan Deal said Tuesday that his proposed budget would fund 400 new residency training slots in hospitals across the state for graduates of Georgia medical schools. Georgia taxpayers currently fund these young physicians’ education through medical school, ‘‘only to see them perform their residency outside of our state and not return,’’ Deal said in his State of the State address."

"The morning after Gov. Nathan Deal announced his goal of 400 more positions for new doctors to serve their clinical residencies, the Board of Regents created a committee for doling out the money he promised. Deal, in his State of the State Address to a joint session of the General Assembly, asked legislators for funds to create the residency slots. That means $1.2 million in the first year, growing over four years to a total of $22 million."

"The increased attention to the lack of family physicians and other primary care physicians needed to meet the nation's growing needs may have had an effect on medical students' choice of specialty. For the second year in a row, the number of medical students who chose to enter family medicine rose, according to the National Resident Matching Program. In fact, the fill rate for family medicine in 2011 was a record high of 94.4 percent, up 3 percent from 2010."

"Starting in 2012, the National Resident Matching Program will administer a new system to link unmatched students with unfilled residency positions."

"The author reviews the history of calls for reform of graduate medical education (GME), beginning with the Rappleye report of 1940, the first report on GME."