The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates a shortage of up to 94,500 physicians by 2025, with some communities already experiencing a deficit in primary and specialty care physicians. This is magnified in rural areas, where only 9 percent of physicians choose to locate their practices.
The solution requires thinking differently about how we, as a health care system, deploy health care and wellness programs. It means transforming our traditional model of care and expanding access in ways we haven’t tried before—coordinated care teams, telemedicine and augmented self-care.
We are developing a number of ways to empower our patients to care for themselves more effectively through avenues like virtual care or at-home diagnostics. Radical access innovation also focuses on building communities that foster health care beyond the hospital, making a healthy community everyone’s priority.