Medical school madness.

• Author: Grover, Atul
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

Phillip Longman's article "First Teach No Harm" (July/ August 2013) details a lack of primary care doctor production at medical schools. However, some schools, including some of the institutions mentioned in the piece, have created new programs to encourage primary care practice. Institutions such as Johns Hopkins University have created urban health primary care tracks for residents that emphasize training in community-based settings. Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and other institutions have created rural medicine programs to boost primary care practices in small-town settings. Research-intensive institutions, including the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, and the University of California, San Francisco, have built primary care tracks to encourage students to enter family medicine. And two new medical schools, the Texas Tech School of Medicine and Mercer University School of Medicine, offer three-year programs in primary care that make it possible for medical students to leave school with less debt and enter practice more quickly.

While medical schools have increased enrollment to help alleviate some of the looming doctor shortages, these efforts will not translate into a single additional doctor unless Congress lifts the cap on residency programs. Pitting one specialty or health profession against another is not going to help our communities get the care they need. The magnitude of the health care workforce shortages facing our nation means...