Recruiting for Primary Care

It is widely agreed that for optimal delivery of health care, half or more of all doctors should be primary care physicians1,2. Nevertheless, unmoved by considerations of national need, a high and increasing proportion of graduates of U.S. medical schools are choosing to become specialists. Moreover, surveys indicate that many established primary care practitioners are unhappy with their practices3. This growing discordance between policy and reality has led policy makers, practitioners, and academics to suggest a variety of programs to increase the number of generalists. These proposals can be grouped into two categories. One group emphasizes changes . . .