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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – WASHINGTON – The American Medical Association (AMA) will testify today before an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee on the need to carefully craft any proposed changes in Graduate Medical Education (GME) to avoid making projected physician shortages even worse.
“As millions of Americans obtain health insurance and can access needed health care, it is critical that our nation ensures a strong and viable physician workforce so patients can get the care they need,” said AMA Group Vice President for Medical Education Susan E. Skochelak, M.D., MPH. “The AMA supports multiple methods to help ease existing and predicted shortages, including increasing the number of residency training positions to alleviate physician shortages and ensure patient access to care.”
While new U.S. medical schools are opening, and many medical schools are expanding their enrollments to meet the need for more physicians, residency training programs are experiencing minimal growth due to limited federal funding. The number of residency slots has been frozen by the federal government since 1997. Without more funding for these positions, the physician workforce cannot grow to meet the needs of the nation’s 300 million people.
The AMA has launched a grassroots campaign to raise awareness in Congress on the need to preserve GME funding as budget negotiations continue.
To read the AMA’s full testimony, visit
http://www.ama-assn.org/
About the American Medical Association (AMA)
The American Medical Association helps doctors help patients by uniting physicians nationwide to work on the most important professional, public health and health policy issues. The nation’s largest physician organization plays a leading role in shaping the future of medicine. For more information on the AMA, please visit www.ama-assn.org.
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