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Rural Family Medicine Residency Training Survey: Follow-up to 2000 Survey

Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Research center: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
Phone: 206.685.0402
Lead researcher: Frederick Chen, MD, MPH , 206.685.0402, fchen@u.washington.edu
Project funded: September 2006
Project completed:August 2010
Topics: Physicians
Workforce

Rural physician supply has remained relatively stable over the past decade, but its future is threatened by reduced medical student interest in family medicine careers and a declining residency match rate. This 2007 survey of all U.S. family medicine residency programs found that 33 rural programs accounted for over 80% of family medicine training occurring in rural sites, although some urban programs offer rural training tracks. Expansion of rural family medicine training is limited by Medicare graduate medical education funding caps on residency slots, financial hardships facing rural hospitals, and the challenges of creating residency training programs.

Publications

  • Availability of Family Medicine Residency Training in Rural Locations of the United States (Policy Brief)
    Date: 06 / 2009
    Family physicians constitute the largest proportion of the rural primary care physician workforce, yet declining student interest in rural family medicine may worsen rural primary care shortages.
  • Family Medicine Residency Training in Rural Locations (Final Report)
    Author(s): Frederick M. Chen, C. Holly A. Andrilla, Mark P. Doescher, Carl Morris
    Report Number: #126
    Date: 07 / 2010
    Rural physician supply has remained relatively stable over the past decade, but its future is threatened by reduced medical student interest in family medicine careers and a declining residency match rate. This 2007 survey of all U.S. family medicine residency programs found that 33 rural programs accounted for over 80% of family medicine training occurring in rural sites, although some urban programs offer rural training tracks. Expansion of rural family medicine training is limited by Medicare graduate medical education funding caps on residency slots, financial hardships facing rural hospitals, and the challenges of creating residency training programs.