Contact:
Maureen Maxwell - 888/794-7481
[email protected]
Date: April 15, 1998
For Immediate Release
ACADEMY URGES CAUTION IN INTERPRETING REPORTS OF PRIMARY CARE OVERSUPPLY
Leaks run counter to real world experience
"When faced with counterintuitive information, don't believe it until you read the data," said American Academy of Family Physicians Board Chair Patrick B. Harr, M.D. Press reports about an American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) article reportedly under review for publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) have suggested that the study found an oversupply of primary care physicians.
"Should the article be favorably reviewed and published, the Academy looks forward to examining the data," said Harr. The Academy, which tracks data on family medicine residency graduates, finds that demand for family physicians remains high. We are unaware of any national trend toward decreasing job opportunities for family physicians. Indeed, the data we are aware of continues to suggest the most limited job opportunities are for physicians with subspecialty training. If general internists and pediatricians are beginning to face difficulty finding jobs in primary care, it may argue for a careful examination of the degree to which current internal medicine and pediatrics training programs prepare their graduates for today's job markets.
"If and when this article is published, we would hope that it would include data on other specialties, so students can make decisions based on information in the full context," concluded Harr.
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Founded in 1947, the American Academy of Family Physicians represents more than 85,000 family physicians, family practice residents and medical students.
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