23rd National Conference: Dr Perry Pugno Leads Plenary Session on Student Interest in Primary Care

Plenary sessions concentrated on the student pipeline for the primary care workforce will take place on the second day of the 23rd National Conference on Primary Health Care Access (Tuesday, April 17, 2012) at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Carlsbad, California

Leading the principal session on student interest in primary care will be Doctor Perry Pugno, Vice President of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), who will examine student interest in family medicine careers, addressing the question as how student interest has changed over time.

Dr Pugno will describe the AAFP’s re-design of its strategic approach to student interest in response to new studies, new trends, and now new input from a diversity of stakeholders.

Dr Pugno asks: “Is there a “magic bullet” that will trigger the choice of family medicine as a specialty?” and answers “Probably not”.  But the use of a portfolio approach to address multiple factors and decision-points for individual medical students (or even pre-meds) can indeed make a difference in the pipeline for family medicine’s future.  Innovative residency training models, value-added curricula, and diverse training settings are only a few of the many approaches now beginning to demonstrate their favorable impact on student interest.

The presentation by Dr Pugno will be followed by a responder panel that will be announced soon.