Future physician supply in Alaska

The current and projected physician shortage is well documented and applies both in Alaska and nationwide. Filling the state's need for 50 to 100 new physicians annually for the next decade will require a multi-pronged attack. No single mechanism has the requisite capacity. Alaska will need to increase its recruitment efforts, a mechanism with immediate impact, but with questionable long-term potential. Increasing residency training in state is highly effective at retaining physicians, but Alaska has limited capacity to further increase residency training. Finally, instate medical school training is nearly as effective as residency training at producing physicians who remain in state, and is attainable in Alaska. Instate training allows young Alaskans to develop to their full potential and to become doctors, and gives Alaska a medical education matriculation rate that is comparable to that of its peers nationwide, and not with that of the second poorest state in the nation, as it is currently.