Where have all the doctors gone?

Dr. Joseph Martin, Professor of Neurobiology and former dean of Harvard Medical School is also addressing the problem of the shortage of physicians...when you stop and think about the expenses incurred and the time to pay back the education loans, it is getting more difficult every day to get more students to take up family medicine, the backbone of our system and where every patient needs to start...radiology and dermatology are 2 of the fields where lifestyle and the compensation seem to be better than other specialties...and now we even have the SEC involved in healthcare...makes you wonder with all the specialties being the main area of attraction, will family care end up being secondary some day...in other words you visit your dermatologist who also has secondary credentials in family medicine...just the opposite of what has been the standard for a number of years....BD

THE QUESTION OF whether there are enough doctors to care for patients, particularly if the nation moves toward a new scheme for universal health coverage, is the elephant in the room of the presidential campaign debate on health reform.
Fifteen to 20 years ago there were worries about too many doctors, particularly in some specialties. Now, the Association of American Medical Colleges is requesting medical schools to increase enrollments by 30 percent over the next seven to 15 years.
Bottom line: the new requirements in medical care require new thinking in how to deliver that care.
And new thinking is what is needed in an election year featuring a major debate on healthcare. This debate needs to move beyond the issue of access and coverage to how the delivery system can be restructured to provide the best healthcare possible at an affordable cost.