Revitalizing General Practice: The Critical Role of Medical Schools in Addressing the Primary Care Physician Shortage

Abstract

The shortage of primary care physicians is a growing crisis that threatens the stability and effectiveness of healthcare systems. This paper explores a multi-pronged approach to addressing this issue by focusing on the modernization of medical curricula, the establishment of new medical schools, fostering collaboration between institutions, and implementing policy innovations. The cases of South Tyrol, Italy, and Tyrol, Austria, are examined to highlight the challenges faced in establishing new medical schools. This paper proposes that a comprehensive strategy, including the incorporation of general practice content and experience in medical education, is crucial for preparing future physicians for careers in primary care. Furthermore, intensifying efforts to establish new medical schools, particularly in regions such as South Tyrol, which lack native-language medical university education, can provide additional benefits in addressing regional needs and augmenting the number of graduates. Collaboration between existing and new medical schools, regional partnerships, and policy innovations are essential to support the establishment of institutions with a particular focus on general practice and the modernization of curricula at existing universities. By embracing this approach, stakeholders can collectively shape the medical education landscape and address the growing crisis of physician shortages in primary care.

Distances to emergency departments and non-urgent utilization of medical services: a systematic review

“…Provision of such options would help in alleviating the anxiety of especially vulnerable populations including parents of infants and young children, those with compromised immune systems such as cancer patients as seen in Oh et al [ 36 ], or older adults. Lastly, a longer-term option would be to increase the overall supply or volume of practicing physicians per capita, either through the setting up of more medical schools or by making cross-border flows of physicians less restrictive [ 51 ].…”

Family Medicine and Primary Healthcare: The Past, Present and Future

“…Two of the articles published in the Special Issue examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary healthcare with regard to the support of domestic violence cases during the lockdown in Mexico [57] and the working conditions of primary care physicians who were faced with great difficulties in managing patients, whereby remote care was added to routine care, adding to the already overwhelming burden of primary care with limited human resources [55]. Other topics, such as the study of the relationship between sarcopenic obesity and auditory function [51], the administration of useful drugs to reduce weight in obese patients [58], the evaluation of the clinical management of specific dermatological conditions by primary care physicians [39] and the description of the shortage of GPs in relation to the need to enhance university training in primary healthcare [62], were also addressed in this Special Issue.…”

“…As evidence of the interest generated by the aforementioned topics of debate, as of 10 July 2023, 18 manuscripts have been accepted for publication in the Special Issue entitled "The 10th Anniversary of Healthcare-Family Medicine" following the peer review process. Specifically, 2 reviews, 1 perspective and 15 articles were published online [39,40,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63].…”