Dive Brief:
- George Washington University is opening its new GW Health Workforce Institute to look at questions surrounding the US healthcare workforce and its ability to meet the needs of health reform.
- The researchers will aim to answer questions that were supposed to have been addressed under an Affordable Care Act commission that went unfunded, says institute co-director Patricia Pittman.
- The institute, which will operate out of GW's Milken Institute School of Public Health, will also incorporate research from the university's medical, nursing, business, education and public policy schools.
Dive Insight:
Pittman points toward a lack of direction in planning for the healthcare workforce of the future.
"There isn’t a lot of work looking into making sure [federal funding] goes toward what we need in the workforce like primary care doctors or diversity in the physician workforce," she told the Washington Business Journal.
The institute plans to examine topics including whether there is a doctor shortage and the growing roles of nurse practitioners and physicians' assistants, and the regulatory atmosphere that impacts their implementation. It will also look at coordination across specialities, how new technology impacts workforce needs, and inequities in provider distribution.
One project example, according to co-director Fitzhugh Mullan, will be a look at how medical education may need to evolve to meet future needs.
"We've blocked our thinking in how we can train our physicians at the [graduate medical education]," Mullan said. He calls the current system inflexible and suggests that future models will need to emphasize community-based medical training.