A new pathway for medical education

Physician education in the United States must change to meet the primary care needs of a rapidly transforming health care delivery system. Yet medical schools continue to produce a disproportionate number of hospital-based specialists through a high-cost, time-intensive educational model. In response, the American Osteopathic Association and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine established a blue-ribbon commission to recommend changes needed to prepare primary care physicians for the evolving system. The commission recommends that medical schools, in collaboration with their graduate medical education partners, create a new education model that is based on achievement of competencies without a prescribed number of months of study and incorporates the knowledge and skills needed for a twenty-first-century primary care practice. The course of study would occur within a longitudinal clinical training environment that allows for seamless transition from medical school through residency training.