There is a shortage of physicians in the United States, including those practicing primary care. Estimates vary but the Association of American Medical Colleges claims the shortage could reach 40,000 physicians in just over a decade. The shortfall will become more acute as seventy million Baby Boomers age and need more care. In addition, the average age of doctors is 54. Many will retire in the next few years.
It is not easy to train new physicians. Medical school takes four years and requires another three to seven years of residency before a physician can begin to practice medicine. There is also a shortage of graduate medical training slots (i.e. residencies), creating a bottleneck that further limits the number of doctors trained.
A relatively recent trend is to shorten medical school to three years rather than four for students who want to practice general medicine. The following was reported by CBS News:
“This is one model that can really help produce physicians faster,” said Dr. Joan Cangiarella, chair of the consortium for accelerated programs at NYU Langone Health. “You make sure that the core content and everything that you want to teach them to be a competent physician is in those three years.”
I first wrote about three-year medical degrees in 2010. At the time there were only two such programs in the United States and one in Canada. CBS News reports there are now 33 accelerated programs. The advantage for medical students is they can avoid a year of medical school at an average cost of about $60,000 per year. Avoiding an extra year of medical school likely reduces medical school debt by $60,00, plus living expenses for that year. It also allows doctors to join the workforce a year earlier, boosting lifetime income. The downside? The fourth year of medical school is rotations, exposing students to many different medical specialties. One physician I spoke with told me, “That’s a terrible idea!” He thought the fourth year of training was too important to miss. The following is what experts told CBS News:
One analysis found no appreciable difference in medical knowledge or performance between three- and four-year students.
When asked about doctors who say it’s just not enough time, Cangiarella said, “a doctor’s not going to come out today knowing everything. It’s really lifelong learning. It’s never going to be complete.”
The physician shortage is especially acute in rural and underserved areas. That is not an easy problem to solve. While it may sound implausible, some of the medical schools with three-year medical degree programs claim that 70% of their three-year graduates go on to work in underserved areas.
Shortening the time it takes to become a doctor is not unheard of. Many European countries do not require an undergraduate degree before entering medical training. Students can enter a medical program right out of high school if they have completed the appropriate prerequisites. Years ago, a cousin was accepted to medical school and skipped his final year of college. A joint BS/MD program, lasting a total of six years, may be another avenue for American medical colleges to reduce the burden of becoming a doctor.
Read more at BS News: Fast-track med schools aim to ease doctor shortage