Family medicine academic workforce: a national study of faculty numbers and types

Little is known about the numbers of faculty in the family medicine academic workforce. As family medicine continues to advance in the current patient-centered medical home environment, baseline data on family medicine faculty may become important for policy makers and those who try to influence them. This nationwide study describes the types, numbers, and regional location of family medicine academic faculty.

All US allopathic family medicine residency program and US medical school family medicine department websites were gleaned for information regarding academic faculty. Additionally, programs were contacted via telephone and asked whether any of their faculty were considered part-time.

Data were collected from 99% of programs/departments. There are 8,987 people in academic family medicine faculty positions. More than 80% of these are physicians. Over 50% of programs/departments have at least one physician with a doctor of osteopathy degree; 21.9% of faculty are considered part-time. Pharmacists accounted for the highest percentage of part-time faculty.

This study provides the most complete census available to date of family medicine faculty in the United States. Such data may be useful in predicting future family medicine faculty workforce needs as the state of primary care medicine continues to evolve.