Former CDC director issues special report on the U.S. physician shortage

Medical Economics January 16, 2025
Austin Littrell

Key Takeaways

• The U.S. faces a physician shortage, worsened by an aging population and uneven distribution, with significant disparities in Health Professional Shortage Areas.
• Contributing factors include limited medical school entry, graduate medical education bottlenecks, and physician burnout, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Proposed solutions focus on increasing physician supply in high-need areas, reducing medical education costs, and addressing burnout through coordinated efforts and funding.
• Effective implementation of solutions requires addressing systemic issues, such as compensation reform and enhancing diversity initiatives, to avert the looming shortage crisis.

Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, former CDC director, co-authored a special report on the physician shortage in the U.S., published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The United States faces...

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