Primary Care News

"On today's program, we speak by phone with Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at The George Washington University. Dr. Mullan is one of the co-chairs for a conference called "Beyond Flexner 2012: Social Mission in Medical Education," which will happen next week at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa (at 100 East Second Street), from May 15th through the 17th."

"Several medical schools are piloting primary care programs that allow medical students to obtain their degree in just three years, in hopes of avoiding a major primary care physician (PCP) shortage,"

"Getting primary medical care when you're poor or uninsured is challenging everywhere. In some places in California, people can at least tap into extensive county services and flourishing networks of federally financed community clinics."

"A year ago, the Arab Spring rocked the world. Stateside, a less visible revolution is underway. The revolution could be called the Primary Care Spring. As social media played a role in the Arab Spring, there is a large group of primary care physicians who have rallied around the #FMRevolution hashtag. Perhaps as unlikely as a street vendor catalyzing the Arab Spring, a catalyst for the Primary Care Spring was IBM."

"Georgia and the rest of the nation already have a general shortage of obstetricians, internists, pediatricians and family medicine doctors, especially in rural and urban areas. And things are getting worse. The Health Resources and Services Administration forecasts a shortage of 65,000 primary care physicians in the U.S. in 2020."

"At a time when half of primary care doctors say they’d leave medicine if they had an alternative and the NY Times reports on a family physician who can’t give away his practice this hardly seems like the obvious time to claim that primary care is positioned for a renaissance. However, if there’s one thing savvy investors have demonstrated, when everyone says to invest in something that is usually the time to get out. Conversely, when the conventional wisdom is to avoid something, that’s often the time savvy investors jump in."

"Primary care providers are critical for ensuring better coordinated care and better health outcomes for all Americans. To meet the health needs of Americans, the Obama Administration has made the recruitment, training and retention of primary care professionals a top priority."

"A pilot project from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation will funnel extra cash to primary care practices from both the federal government and private insurers."

"A recently developed healthcare model known as a "patient-centered medical home" could improve the quality of care received by patients, the quality of life of the doctors who treat them, and even help slow or reverse New Jersey's growing shortage of primary care physicians."