title: Graduate Medical Education Specialty Mix and Geographic Residency Program Maldistribution: Is There a Role for the ACGME?
abstract: As we've stated, GME is the final common pathway toward clinical medical practice in the US. It makes sense, then, that national physician workforce policy aimed at meeting future public health demands should be directed at this phase of medical education. It would also make sense that ACGME, as the single accreditor of all residency programs in the US, should be engaged in physician workforce policymaking on behalf of the public. We identified three issues that must be addressed in order for the ACGME to assume this role: First, there must be a national agreed-upon and long-term plan for the design and implementation of the health care delivery system. Second, there must be a nationally coordinated strategy for identifying long-term physician workforce needs and funding mechanisms to physician and other health care professional developments. Third, in order to execute these roles, the ACGME must receive support from the profession and national and state-level statutory protection from enforcement of state and federal antitrust law.
authors.affiliation: Chief executive officer of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and a professor of medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and a senior scholar in the Department of Education at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Nasca
authors.affiliation: Practices law in Illinois, with offices in Chicago.
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carlson
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation / Q000639:trends; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D008511:Medicine; D014481:United States