A Program to Increase the Number of Family Physicians in Rural and Underserved Areas

Abstract
In 1910, the Flexner Report stated that "the question is, then, not merely to define the ideal training of the physician; it is just as much, [to] . . . distribute as widely as possible the best type of physician so distributable."1 Eighty-six years later, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on the Future of Primary Care reported that "geographic maldistribution in rural areas is worsening."2 These quotes reflect one of the most persistent and serious problems facing the US physician workforce—the shortage of physicians in rural areas.3,4