Dive Brief:
- Leonard Glass, MD, a retired clinical professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine, believes that retired physicians can be part of the solution to the growing physician shortage in the US.
- Glass founded an online program called Physician Retraining and Reentry, which retrains retired physicians to provide adult outpatient primary care.
- At the end of the program's first year, 13 physicians had successfully completed the program, 70 were still in training and 20 were getting ready to start.
Dive Insight:
The PRR program offers a pathway to general practice for a variety of experienced physicians, including retired physicians, physicians nearing retirement who wish to transition to part-time work, working specialists who are interested in offering primary care, physicians who took a leave of absence to start families and are ready to return to work and physicians looking to retrain in a different specialty.
The American Association of Medical Colleges estimates there will be a shortage of 12,000 to 31,000 primary care physicians by the year 2025. Dr. Glass believes the PPR program has the capacity to add 2,000 physicians to the healthcare system per year, which would be a significant contribution if they are able to meet or exceed those numbers.