Family medicine training in rural areas


  • Abstract

    To the Editor: The discipline of family medicine was created in the 1970s, in part, as a way to address the chronic shortage of US rural physicians.1 It was predicted that the new discipline would augment the supply of rural clinicians because family physicians are much more likely than other physicians to settle in rural areas.2

    There is also empirical evidence that training family physicians in rural areas increases the likelihood that residency graduates will choose to settle in rural places.3– 6 However, the exact proportion of family medicine residency programs located in truly rural parts of the United States remains unknown, as does the extent to which training rural physicians is a priority of existing family medicine residency programs.


  • Authors:

    Rosenblatt RA, Schneeweiss R, Hart LG, Casey S, Andrilla CHA, Chen FM

  • Journal/Publisher:

    JAMA

  • Edition:

    Sep 2002. 288(9):1063-1064

  • Link to Article

    Access the article here: JAMA

  • Citation:

    Rosenblatt RA, Schneeweiss R, Hart LG, Casey S, Andrilla CHA, Chen FM. Family Medicine Training In Rural Areas. JAMA. Sep 2002 288(9):1063-1064

  • Related Studies:

    Physician Residency Rural Training Baseline Study