Medical schools throughout the state, including Ohio University’s, have shifted their curriculums to prioritize primary care, which is projected to see an increase in demand thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
The state of Ohio has about 90 primary care physicians per 100,000 members of the population, which falls right into the national average, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ 2011 State Physician Workforce data book.
However, Ohio will need a lot more primary care physicians once the Affordable Care Act is in place, said John Brose, vice provost for health affairs.
“The Affordable Care Act is going to bring more people into the system, it’s going to make screening processes more available to people, and it’s doing these things at a time when the demand for primary care is going up,” Brose said.
Because of this need for primary care, OU’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine focuses on teaching the rewarding aspects of being a primary care physician rather than the lower pay grade that primary care physicians initially receive, Brose said.
Similar to OU-HCOM, the Northeast Ohio Medical University adapts its curriculum to produce more primary care physicians—or doctors who make initial consultations—in Ohio, said Lisa Weiss, associate director of curriculum at NEOMED.
“They see primary care at its finest and hopefully will then choose primary care,” Weiss said.
University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine students are still exposed to primary care, but students come out with a variety of different specializations, said Philip Diller, Fred Lazarus Jr. professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Cincinnati.
All students at Cincinnati’s College of Medicine are paired with a primary care physician their first year and they spend about 25 sessions in that physician’s office learning from their practices.
“By the time that they get to the end of the experience in those first two years, they’re ready to go on and work in the hospital,” Diller said.
Ohio State University tries to instill an interest in primary care early to negate two obstacles associated with primary care: lower pay and job satisfaction, said Daniel Clinchot, vice dean for education at OSU’s College of Medicine.
In practical experiences, the college focuses on putting students into communities to treat and inform the community about how to prevent illnesses, an important skill for all physicians under the Affordable Care Act, Clinchot said.
“You can’t wait for health care reform to occur before you get students interested in primary care,” Clinchot said. “You need primary care physicians now.”
@DanielleRose84
dk1231111@ohiou.edu
This article appeared in print under the headline "Getting the Grant: OU shifts focus of programs"
