Reason #1: Forge your own path
A Family Medicine residency can lead to fellowships in sports medicine, geriatrics, lifestyle medicine, obesity medicine, global health, health advocacy, women’s health, sleep medicine, palliative care, and faculty development to name a few. Even if a fellowship is not pursued, a family trained physician can work in the hospital, emergency room or inpatient, as well as the outpatient setting, urgent care or primary care. Choosing Family Medicine gives you the opportunity to explore a wide breadth of medicine and allows you to practice medicine in the setting that best fits you.
Reason #2: Bring High Value Care
Primary Care Physicians bring significant value to their communities¹ and there is a current supply shortage². As employers realize these facts, primary care salaries are increasing³ at a faster rate than specialists. The high demand also may contribute to the success of independent, physician owned primary care offices while the general trend in medicine is towards employed physicians⁴. A good example of this is the proliferation of the direct primary care model⁵, which has been growing exponentially in the last 10 years⁶. Choosing Family Medicine will make you a high demand physician who is invaluable to your community.
Reason #3: Be the change
During my 4 years in medical school, I was active in state level advocacy. During my two years of residency so far, I have been active in federal level lobbying and advocacy while still maintaining some state level activity. The 6 years of experience has allowed me to see “how the sausage is made” and taught me that most of the real change in this country happens at the individual and community level, not at the legislative or executive government levels. Elon Musk didn’t lobby the federal government for better NASA funding, nor did he lobby NASA to build better rockets; he built some incredible rockets and changed the way we go to space. In the same vein, our broken healthcare system will only be changed by physicians on the ground, facing the problems, and innovating to change the way we heal in this country. Nowhere is the spirit of change and innovation as alive as it is in family medicine. Choosing Family Medicine will empower you to change your patients’ lives for the better and bring about grassroots change to the healthcare system.
- https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2724393
- https://bhw.hrsa.gov/health-workforce-analysis/primary-care-2020#:~:text=Based%20on%20current%20utilization%20patterns,more%20rapidly%20than%20physician%20supply.&text=The%20total%20demand%20for%20primary,%2C%20a%2014%2Dpercent%20increase.
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2019/07/12/doctor-pay-hits-266k-for-primary-care-443k-for-specialists/#3077d6953bff
- https://www.ama-assn.org/about/research/employed-physicians-now-exceed-those-who-own-their-practices
- https://medium.com/@kennethq/direct-primary-care-e6e5e9e5d0aa
- https://mapper.dpcfrontier.com/
