Giving Thought to Primary Care

摘要

This is the second of two Medicine and Health Rhode Islandissues on Primary Care, in which each expert addresses threequestions, selected by the guest editor, that arise frequently ineveryday practice.No journal issue on the topic of primary care would becomplete without mention of the current crisis in primary care.In 2006, the American College of Physicians warned of theimminent “collapse” of primary care.1 Along with many otherstakeholders, medical schools have contributed to this collapseof primary care and have a major role in its rebuilding.2 Thissummer, Mullen et al published a study of medical schools’commitment to the “social mission” of medical education—defined as “graduating physicians who practice primary careand work in underserved areas and recruiting and graduatingyoung physicians who are underrepresented minorities.”3 Thearticle generated the expected responses: medical schools thatwere rated highly celebrated their standing, and the Associationof American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and schools that didnot fare as well criticized the study.