"Time Will Tell: Physician Training": 26th National Conference Leadoff Panels Discuss Graduate Medical Education Funding Policy, Accreditation Changes, and "Future of Family Medicine"

Last Updated on April 16, 2022 by Lee Burnett, DO, FAAFP

The 26th National Conference on Primary Health Care Access first day plenary sessions will address three major initiatives expected to strongly influence the composition of the future American physician workforce.

Leading off the opening panels will be Tim Henderson, MSPH of George Mason University. Mr Henderson is a Senior Fellow of the National Conferences,

Henderson, with four decades of experience in health care olicy and research, will provide his analysis of the Institute of Medicine’s Josiah Macy Jr Foundation report on Graduate Medical Education.

The IOM report, noting the critical importance that Medicare funding has had on the evolution of physician residency training (graduate medical education) in its nearly half-century of existence, has proposed major changes in what, to a considerable extent, has been a laissez-faire system.

The IOM report has called for the “modernization” of payment methods to include performance, program oversight and accountability. It would also consolidate the current direct and indirect funds and then create sub-accounts for “maintenance” of existing residency positions and for workforce transformation.

Mr Henderson has made previous presentations to the National Conferences on the role of Medicare and Medicaid, including their role in American physician training programs, will analyze the report and critique its emphases on program accountability and transparency.

Joining Mr Henderson will be Stanley Kozakowski, Director of Medical Education at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), who will present the AAFP’s rseponse to the report.

Dr Kozakowski will also give a progress report on another transformative effort, the Future of Family Medicine (2.0) project, a subject introduced at the previous National Conference [Proceedings of the 25th National Conference – First Plenary Session, Part 2 (Pugno).]

Dr Kozakowski has been designated the 2015 Norman B. Kahn National Conference Scholar, in honor of Dr Kahn, who was the director of the first Future of Family Medicine project [See Dr Kahn’s most recent presentation at Proceedings of the 25th National Conference; April 14, 2014 (First Plenary Session, Kahn).]

After the discussions of the IOM’s report on GME, panelists will update and amplify two panels that took place at the last National Conference, both related to changes in the systems of accrediting undergraduate (i.e., medical school) and graduate medical education (i.e., residency and fellowships).

[See Proceedings of the 25th National Conference: April 14, 2014 – Second Plenary Session, Part 1 (Allen) and Proceedings of the 25th National Conference: April 14, 2014 – Second Plenary Session, Part 2 (Hansen).]

Thomas Hansen, MD, Chief Academic Officer of Advocate Health Care, a hospital and healthcare system located in Illinois will continue the discussion of the impact of health care mergers and the disappearance of traditional teaching hospitals associated with one medical school.