Transforming Training to Build the Family Physician Workforce Our Country Needs

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Affordable Care Act has spurred significant change in the US health care system, including expansion of Medicaid and private insurance coverage to millions of Americans. As a result, the need for the medical education continuum to produce a family physician workforce that is sizable enough and highly skilled is significant. These two interdependent goals have emerged as top priorities for Family Medicine for America’s Health, a new, 5-year, $21 million collaborative strategic effort of the eight US family medicine organizations to lead continued change in the US health care system. To achieve these important goals, reforms are needed across the entire educational continuum, including how we recruit, train, and help practicing family physicians refresh their skills. Such reforms must provide opportunities to acquire skills needed in new practice and payment environments, to incorporate new educational standards that reflect the public’s expectations of family physicians, to collaborate with our primary care colleagues to develop effective interprofessional training, and to design educational programs that are socially accountable to the patients, families, and communities we serve. Through Family Medicine for America’s Health, the discipline is well positioned to emerge as a leader in primary care workforce development and educational quality.