Doctors trained abroad will save rural health care

Health care is growing hard to come by in rural America.

COVID-19 took advantage of rural America’s shortage of care. Patients in rural areas were 54% more likely than others to contract the virus, according to a September 2021 analysis from the Rural Policy Research Institute. Tragically, those infected people were twice as likely to die than their urban counterparts.

Lower vaccine rates in rural areas certainly contributed to those disparities. But so did staffing shortages and limited access to care, the analysis found.

Boosting numbers of primary care physicians in shortage areas could save over 7,000 lives every single year, according to a March 2021 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

That’s easier said than done. The United States is predicted to face a nationwide shortage of up to 48,000 primary care physicians over the next decade.

One of the key drivers of these shortages is our aging physician workforce. Approximately 40% of doctors will reach retirement age over the next ten years. Rural doctors are even older. About half were at least 50 years of age as of 2017.

There are three key ways to combat the coming wave of retirements and strengthen the pipeline of rural doctors.

First, we can increase the number of rural Americans who pursue careers in medicine. Students from rural communities accounted for just 4.3% of new medical students in 2017. That’s the result of a 15-year decline. The share of rural medical students dropped by a staggering 30% between 2002 and 2017, according to research published in 2019 in Health Affairs.

Medical graduates from rural communities are far more likely to practice in places like their hometowns than those from more populated areas.

In other words, rural students are our best bet for narrowing the rural doctor shortage.

The second is to look beyond U.S. borders — to international medical schools — for the next generation of rural physicians.

International medical graduates, or IMGs, account for about 25% of physicians currently practicing in the United States. The share is even higher in particularly needy communities. In low-income areas, many of which are rural, more than 42% of doctors are international grads. IMGs are also more likely to “look after underserved populations” and “work in rural areas,” according to a 2019 analysis published in BMC Family Practice, a medical journal.

The international medical school I lead has actually been the U.S. health care system’s top source of new doctors over the last eight years. Many of our graduates practice in rural and other medically underserved areas.

In addition, graduates of international medical schools enter primary care specialties at disproportionately high rates. In the 2022 residency match cycle, about 70% of IMGs matched into a primary care residency. That’s roughly double the share of graduates of U.S. medical schools who chose primary care.

The third is to expand residency training opportunities in rural America. Where physicians complete their residencies plays a big role in where they ultimately practice. One analysis found that over half of family physicians go on to practice within 100 miles of where they do their residency. Nearly 60% remain in the same state.

Historically, most residency programs have been concentrated in urban areas near big hospital systems and universities. Funding more rural residencies could increase the flow of doctors to these needy communities.

Fortunately, some lawmakers are considering just that. More than a dozen have gotten behind legislation that would permanently authorize the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program, which supports residencies at rural health clinics. The program has already helped send hundreds of new doctors to underserved communities.

Congress is also working to increase the number of residencies funded by Medicare. Last December, lawmakers included funding for 1,000 new slots in a multi-trillion-dollar spending package.

The lack of access to care in rural America has devastating consequences — as the last two years have revealed all too well. International medical graduates can help fix this problem — and make America a healthier place.

G. Richard Olds is president, St. George’s University.

lisa1 lisa2 lisa3 lisa4 lisa5 lisa6 lisa7 lisa8 lisa9 lisa10 lisa11 lisa12 lisa13 lisa14 lisa15 lisa16 lisa17 lisa18 lisa19 lisa20 lisa21 lisa22 lisa23 lisa24 lisa25 lisa26 lisa27 lisa28 lisa29 lisa30 lisa31 lisa32 lisa33 lisa34 lisa35 lisa36 lisa37 lisa38 lisa39 lisa40 lisa41 lisa42 lisa43 lisa44 lisa45 lisa46 lisa47 lisa48 lisa49 lisa50 lisa51 lisa52 lisa53 lisa54 lisa55 lisa56 lisa57 lisa58 lisa59 lisa60 lisa61 lisa62 lisa63 lisa64 lisa65 lisa66 lisa67 lisa68 lisa69 lisa70 lisa71 lisa72 lisa73 lisa74 lisa75 lisa76 lisa77 lisa78 lisa79 lisa80 lisa81 lisa82 lisa83 lisa84 lisa85 lisa86 lisa87 lisa88 lisa89 lisa90 lisa91 lisa92 lisa93 lisa94 lisa95 lisa96 lisa97 lisa98 lisa99 lisa100 lisa101 lisa102 lisa103 lisa104 lisa105 lisa106 lisa107 lisa108 lisa109 lisa110 lisa111 lisa112 lisa113 lisa114 lisa115 lisa116 lisa117 lisa118 lisa119 lisa120 lisa121 lisa122 lisa123 lisa124 lisa125 lisa126 lisa127 lisa128 lisa129 lisa130 lisa131 lisa132 lisa133 lisa134 lisa135 lisa136 lisa137 lisa138 lisa139 lisa140 lisa141 lisa142 lisa143 lisa144 lisa145 lisa146 lisa147 lisa148 lisa149 lisa150 lisa151 lisa152 lisa153 lisa154 lisa155 lisa156 lisa157 lisa158 lisa159 lisa160 lisa161 lisa162 lisa163 lisa164 lisa165 lisa166 lisa167 lisa168 lisa169 lisa170 lisa171 lisa172 lisa173 lisa174 lisa175 lisa176 lisa177 lisa178 lisa179 lisa180 lisa181 lisa182 lisa183 lisa184 lisa185 lisa186 lisa187 lisa188 lisa189 lisa190 lisa191 lisa192 lisa193 lisa194 lisa195 lisa196 lisa197 lisa198 lisa199 lisa200 lisa201 lisa202 lisa203 lisa204 lisa205 lisa206 lisa207 lisa208 lisa209 lisa210

NewToNews

Doctors trained abroad will save rural health care

Byolaksjl

By olaksjl

Related Post

Study of Cannabidiol Oil for the Treatment of Advanced Cancer Symptoms

Comparing Extramural Lymphatic, Vascular, & Perineural Invasion with Intramural Invasion in Stage II Colon Cancer

Evaluation of a Self-Pay bpMRI Program’s Downstream Revenues

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You missed

Can AI predict spatiotemporal distribution of dengue fever outbreaks with remote sensing data?

What emotions does the city awaken?

Novartis gets CDSCO panel nod for Phase III CT of anticancer drug Ianalumab

MDM2 inhibitor shows efficacy in patients with advanced cancers

NewToNews