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 June
2004 Issue | Browse
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In April , I addressed the fact that there is an acknowledged shortage of physicians in this country. For those of you who may have missed that column, the American Medical Association has renounced a longstanding policy that the nation trained enough physicians. In Florida, which has the nation’s oldest physician work force, the problem is exacerbated because 26 percent of Florida’s 47,000 doctors are 65 years of age or older. To meet the current needs of Floridians, Florida must license more than 2,500 physicians annually. The state only graduates 500 doctors a year; other states and foreign countries supply the rest. It is now widely accepted nationally that a shortage of physicians exists and will grow rapidly unless new strategies are developed. In the past, increasing the size of medical schools, increasing the number of residents, developing new medical schools, developing incentives for the practice of medicine, and importing doctors have all been proposed as solutions to physician shortages. FIU believes that a combination of strategies is the best formula and that, specifically in South Florida, which has more than 5 million residents, a new public medical school should be the catalyst for such solutions. While the University hopes to soon have its own medical school, it is moving forward with another important component in solving the physician shortage: the creation of a medical residency program. In a show of confidence, the Legislature set aside $600,000 for FIU for the creation of its Accelerated Medical School Program for students of the Honors College and for the creation of a medical residency program. The addition of medical residency positions in Miami-Dade County is important because research shows that physicians tend to stay in the communities where they completed their residencies. Virtually everyone agrees that Florida needs more residency training programs. According to an article that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times, Florida ranks 45th among states in the number of medical residents per 100,000 people. Experts estimate that we will need 2,000 more residency positions in five years just to approach the national average. FIU’s medical residency program will focus initially on the medical specialties of family medicine, pediatrics and internal medicine. While the details are still being worked out, the medical residency program is a proactive step being taken by FIU in its continuing efforts to be a good community neighbor. For that, you should be very proud. As a Lifetime member of the FIU Alumni Association, I know that I am. For more information on this new program, please visit http://honors.fiu.edu/premed.htm. As always, if any of my columns prompt questions, please do not hesitate to send me your queries via email to horstmyj@fiu.edu. Jeffrey Horstmyer, M.D., is a board-certified neurologist at Mercy and a 1989 graduate of the University of Miami School of Medicine. He has just finished four years as chief of Mercy’s Division of Neurology and is on track to become president of Mercy’s approximately 900-member medical staff in two years. He is chairman of the University’s Council of 100 and serves on the College of Engineering’s Biomedical Engineering Advisory Board. He is also an ex-officio member of the FIU Foundation Board of Directors. His wife, Domitila “Tillie” Fox, is an instructor in FIU’s Department of Mathematics and has been at the University since the beginning. |
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