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Primary Care Careers Among Recent Graduates of Research-Intensive Private and Public Medical Schools

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Journal of General Internal Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND

Despite a growing need for primary care physicians in the United States, the proportion of medical school graduates pursuing primary care careers has declined over the past decade.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the association of medical school research funding with graduates matching in family medicine residencies and practicing primary care.

DESIGN

Observational study of United States medical schools.

PARTICIPANTS

One hundred twenty-one allopathic medical schools.

MAIN MEASURES

The primary outcomes included the proportion of each school’s graduates from 1999 to 2001 who were primary care physicians in 2008, and the proportion of each school’s graduates who entered family medicine residencies during 2007 through 2009. The 25 medical schools with the highest levels of research funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2010 were designated as “research-intensive.”

KEY RESULTS

Among research-intensive medical schools, the 16 private medical schools produced significantly fewer practicing primary care physicians (median 24.1 % vs. 33.4 %, p < 0.001) and fewer recent graduates matching in family medicine residencies (median 2.4 % vs. 6.2 %, p < 0.001) than the other 30 private schools. In contrast, the nine research-intensive public medical schools produced comparable proportions of graduates pursuing primary care careers (median 36.1 % vs. 36.3 %, p = 0.87) and matching in family medicine residencies (median 7.4 % vs. 10.0 %, p = 0.37) relative to the other 66 public medical schools.

CONCLUSIONS

To meet the health care needs of the US population, research-intensive private medical schools should play a more active role in promoting primary care careers for their students and graduates.

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Acknowledgments

Contributors

The authors are grateful to Lin Ding, PhD for assistance with statistical analyses, and to Debby Collins for assistance with manuscript preparation.

Funders

No grants or other internal or external financial support were received for the work presented in this manuscript.

Prior presentations

The content of this manuscript has not been presented at any conferences.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they do not have a conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Phillip A. Choi BS

  2. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Shuai Xu MSc

  3. Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, 180 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    John Z. Ayanian MD, MPP

  4. Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    John Z. Ayanian MD, MPP

  5. Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    John Z. Ayanian MD, MPP

Authors
  1. Phillip A. Choi BS
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  2. Shuai Xu MSc
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  3. John Z. Ayanian MD, MPP
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Z. Ayanian MD, MPP.

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Choi, P.A., Xu, S. & Ayanian, J.Z. Primary Care Careers Among Recent Graduates of Research-Intensive Private and Public Medical Schools. J GEN INTERN MED 28, 787–792 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-012-2286-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-012-2286-z

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