Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR
-
An alternative solution to the predicted physician workforce shortage would be the incorporation of nonphysician caregivers (NPCs) into the primary care workforce under the supervision of a limited number of internists, pediatricians, and family practitioners, thus freeing medical students and residents who currently enter primary care medicine for work in medical and surgical specialties in which there are current shortages that require specific medical training beyond the scope of NPCs' competencies. At the same time, the profession should follow the lead of the multidisciplinary ethic of contemporary natural science, in which collaboration among disciplines has become increasingly crucial for high-level research, by creating a training pathway, on the model of the Medical Science Training Program, for dual-degree physicians who seek to combine their medical expertise with training in the social sciences and the humanities. In addition to recognizing and rewarding an existing and growing trend within medical education, the creation of a cadre of dual-degree experts with access to centers of power and influence in law, business, government, and the media could create the nucleus of a medically trained intellectual elite that would be in a better position in the future to advocate for physician interests in crucial centers of power.
-
The recent forecast by the Committee on Graduate Medical Education (COGME) of an impending physician workforce shortage has led to a proposal by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to expand medical school admissions by 30% over the next 10 years, an ambitious project whose likelihood of success is compromised by numerous factors inherent in the contemporary medical services marketplace.
-
Hospitals routinely enter into contracts with radiology groups for the right to be the exclusive providers of radiologic services at the facilities in exchange for the groups' agreeing to provide and manage all aspects of those services within the hospitals. These exclusive contracts generally result in radiology departments and associated equipment being closed off to physicians who are not part of the contracting groups. ⋯ Part 2 weighs the practical advantages and disadvantages of exclusive contracts for physicians covered and not covered by such contracts and strategies for avoiding them, as well as provisions that can be included in medical staff bylaws to protect physicians from the automatic termination of privileges when a hospital enters into or terminates an exclusive contract. The remainder of the article provides tips on specific provisions of exclusive contracts that should be included or avoided.
-
After a quarter century of national policy guided by two principal themes-fear of a physician workforce glut and official preference for careers in primary care medicine-the Council on Graduate Medical Education in January 2005 reversed course and announced its projection of a general physician shortage by 2020 and specifically named several specialties, including radiology, in which the shortage would be most severe. In response, the Association of American Medical Colleges initially proposed that medical schools increase enrollment by 15% and subsequently by 30% over the next 10 years. In the first of 3 articles devoted to the physician workforce crisis, the market model is applied to medical services, and questions are raised about the feasibility of the proposed medical school expansion.