New Medical Schools Focus on Primary Care

To combat shortages of primary care physicians and to meet demands that will be placed on the healthcare system under the Affordable Care Act, a number of new medical schools are opening across the United States – many of which will focus specifically on primary care.  

Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut is 1 of the first of these new schools and the application process has already begun.  The school’s first class will consist of 60 accepted students chosen from a pool of over 1600 applicants. 

The number of physicians choosing primary care each year is dwindling for several reasons, explained Bruce Koeppen, the Netter School’s dean.  Lower pay is a concern, as well as the necessity of a primary care physician to have knowledge of a far broader set of conditions than that of a specialist. 

The most likely candidates for primary care are women, individuals beginning a second career, and those that are the first in their family to pursue medicine or from medically understaffed areas, he said. 

Quinnipiac plans to send all of their future doctors into the field to study the work of primary care doctors in their practices.  Overall, the school’s goal is for 50% of its graduates to remain in primary care. 

–Michael Potts

Reference

Cohen J. New med school aims to train primary care docs.  Kaiser Health News. http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2013/April/02/Quinnipiac-medical-school-primary-care.aspx. Published April 2, 2013. Accessed April 3, 2013.