Primary Care Medicine in Canada

Abstract

IN recent years, analysts in both the academic and policy-making communities have come to believe that the supply of primary care physicians in the United States is inadequate to meet the needs of the population.^{1 , 2} In the light of this perception, the declining interest of graduates of U.S. medical schools in careers in primary care medicine is viewed with alarm. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of graduates matched to residencies (internal medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine) that might lead to careers in primary care medicine decreased by 19 percent.^{3 , 4} If the current trend persists, the percentage of U.S. physicians who are primary care practitioners can be expected to decrease from the present one third to approximately one fourth by the turn of the century.⁵ These trends have created a growing consensus within both the academic and policy-making communities that new strategies must be developed to increase the supply of primary care physicians in the country.^{5 6 7}