Robert C. Bowman, M.D.
Medical schools by alpha order
Physician Distribution in the United States - to understand what we have done and what we could do
Ranking Medical Schools and FP Residency Programs
Distribution by Income Levels and Admissions By Income Quartiles - When income goes up, admissions goes up, major medical center location goes up, and distribution to rural and underserved areas goes down and so does choice of family medicine
Schools with higher MCAT have lower FP, rural, poverty choices and increased research choice.
No school successful in rural or in poverty distribution is able to succeed without increasing family medicine choice. Older, lower income, rural born, and instate born students have increased choice of family medicine and these categories of students also have increased retention within the state that invested in them in education and medical education.
MCAT data from medical school, advisor, and faculty web sites and sources. The highest and lowest MCAT scores may well have the greatest variability and this should be considered.
Distribution Table by individual medical school (tables take some time)
Osteopathic family medicine choice is much higher than match figures, this family medicine data is from the most recent Family Medicine issue and represents the latest data, not 1987-2000
Research choice does not peak for 25 years but the 1987-1994 data is consistent with eventual research choice by school
Other Physician Workforce Studies
Distribution and Physician Specialties
|
Practice Location |
US Population 1998 |
1987 - 2000 FPGP |
1987 - 2000 Office Based Primary Care Not FPGP |
1987 - 2000 Not Office Based Primary Care |
Accelerated FP Programs |
|
Urban |
77.6 % |
73.9 % |
89.6 % |
90.3 % |
50 % |
|
Large Rural |
9.3 % |
10.5 % |
5.9 % |
5.4 % |
16.5 % |
|
Medium Rural |
6.9 % |
9.7 % |
2.7 % |
2.0 % |
23.7 % |
|
Isolated Rural |
6.1 % |
4.8 % |
0.9 % |
0.7% |
9.4 % |
Accelerated and Rural Training Track programs have had the best rural distributions, but accelerated programs have been terminated by accrediting bodies, the lack of enough FP candidates has reduced choice of RTT, rural GME positions continue to be funded at lower levels, decreasing from 92 to 78 positions in 2005 despite rhetoric regarding rural as a priority.
See Birth Origins and Distribution Tables for comprehensive listing of needed primary care and psychiatry and poverty choices related to student characteristics, medical school characteristics, and choice of family medicine
Family Medicine Distribution by Ethnicity and Gender
| rural by RUCA | rural by nonmetro | Poverty Level Zip at 20% | CHC Zip | Rural Zip | Poverty Level Zip at 18% | Military Zip | Core Metro Born | Lesser Metro Born | NonMetro Born | Residency to practice Less than 60 miles | Residency to Practice over 500 miles | |
| White Female | 23.7% | 21.4% | 23.7% | 17.1% | 23.7% | 27.7% | 4.0% | 43.3% | 35.3% | 21.4% | 54.9% | 26.5% |
| White Male | 28.3% | 27.6% | 20.9% | 13.7% | 28.3% | 24.7% | 8.4% | 33.8% | 38.6% | 27.6% | 47.7% | 29.6% |
| Black Female | 10.0% | 9.3% | 30.3% | 14.0% | 10.0% | 36.0% | 2.8% | 61.1% | 29.6% | 9.3% | 60.7% | 26.1% |
| Black Male | 11.7% | 9.4% | 32.5% | 16.9% | 11.7% | 38.6% | 7.1% | 57.8% | 32.8% | 9.4% | 57.5% | 28.2% |
| Mex Am Female | 9.3% | 6.2% | 46.4% | 31.8% | 9.3% | 49.6% | 2.5% | 64.9% | 28.9% | 6.2% | 65.5% | 23.3% |
| Mex Am Male | 14.6% | 12.6% | 37.3% | 27.6% | 14.6% | 40.8% | 3.7% | 59.2% | 28.2% | 12.6% | 59.3% | 21.6% |
| Asian Female | 7.7% | 7.3% | 27.7% | 20.0% | 7.7% | 31.4% | 2.6% | 69.8% | 22.9% | 7.3% | 58.5% | 29.9% |
| Asian Male | 7.6% | 7.5% | 25.4% | 17.9% | 7.6% | 28.8% | 6.8% | 70.6% | 21.8% | 7.5% | 54.4% | 31.6% |
| PR Female | 8.2% | 48.0% | 6.8% | 62.5% | 25.0% | 12.5% | 67.4% | 26.1% | ||||
| PR Male | 9.4% | 53.1% | 5.7% | 28.6% | 52.4% | 19.0% | 60.0% | 31.4% | ||||
| Oth Hisp Female | 13.2% | 12.2% | 29.3% | 21.1% | 13.2% | 30.1% | 0.0% | 64.9% | 23.0% | 12.2% | 57.4% | 23.5% |
| Other Hisp Male | 9.2% | 11.5% | 33.0% | 18.4% | 9.2% | 34.0% | 2.8% | 59.4% | 29.2% | 11.5% | 47.2% | 37.1% |
| Native Female | 46.7% | 40.7% | 44.8% | 18.5% | 46.7% | 48.3% | 0.0% | 33.3% | 25.9% | 40.7% | 42.9% | 17.9% |
| Native Male | 36.4% | 31.4% | 47.6% | 30.2% | 36.4% | 50.0% | 4.5% | 31.4% | 37.1% | 31.4% | 45.7% | 28.6% |
| Other Female | 17.6% | 16.3% | 30.5% | 19.9% | 17.6% | 34.6% | 3.6% | 51.7% | 32.0% | 16.3% | 58.4% | 25.7% |
| Other Male | 25.3% | 26.0% | 28.8% | 18.2% | 25.3% | 32.6% | 6.5% | 35.4% | 38.6% | 26.0% | 51.6% | 28.2% |
| Total | 22.4% | 21.3% | 24.9% | 16.4% | 22.4% | 28.8% | 5.9% | 43.9% | 34.8% | 21.3% | 52.9% | 28.0% |
Males are more likely to be married and not surprisingly are more likely to be involved in military FP programs. Black males and rural males are likely to be military, black and Mexican American females to academic programs, and therefore those most likely to distribute where needed are taken out of circulation by current health policy and failure to enter enough distributional type students into the pipeline to meet all of the critical needs of the nation.
Asian FPs are the most likely to live in counties over 1 million after graduation while white males and natives share the lowest core urban distribution in the low 30% level.
Family physicians are more likely to be retained near their residency location and within the state of their medical school.
Physician Distribution in the United States
Accelerated Family Medicine Training Programs
Newer Allopathic Medical Schools
Distributional Medical Schools: The Lost Lesson of Specific Forms of Government Support
Distribution: The 70-30 Distributions That Complicate Physician Distribution
Physician Distribution by Income Quintile Levels
The One Per Cent Solutions that Resolve Distribution Problems
Medical School Type and Distribution: Initial Database Description and Rural Application Graphics
Comparing Physician Distribution and the MCAT
Understanding Poverty and Physician Workforce
Urban-Rural Location, Per Capita Income, and Choice of Family Medicine
Ethnicity Gender and Rural Practice Choice
Workforce Issues - many different links here