Foundation to examine the social mission of medical education during the current period of medical school expansion. After 25 years of static enrollments, US allopathic medical schools are at the point of major expansion—both in the creation of new medical schools and in the augmentation of established ones. The Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Association of Colleges of O
steopathic Medicine have projected that first-year enrollment in medical schools will increase between 20 and 25 percent by 2012. This expansion is taking place with little national consensus about its extent or the precise goals other than a general belief that more doctors will be needed in the future. Minimal attention is being paid to what might be called the social mission of medical education—the long-standing need to create a more ethnically and racially diverse physician workforce, to train physicians for primary care, and to ensure a more equitable geographic distribution of physicians. The Medical Education Futures Study is examining the social mission of medical education from retrospective and prospective points of view. The study involves historical analyses of past legislative and educational initiatives, an assessment of current expansion activities, an examination of institutional, state, and local policies pertinent to the social mission of medical education, and site visits to institutions that have been successful in this regard. The study will conclude with a set of findings and recommendations intended to offer perspectives and strategies to new or expanding programs of medical education. Advisory boards composed of medical educators, specialty representatives, policy makers, and representatives of organizations concerned with the future of health care provides guidance for the study. We welcome your feedback as we work to establish an electronic community of those concerned with the future of medical education. We encourage you to turn to our site for news, research, and analysis on issues relating to diversity within the physician workforce, the geographic maldistribution of physicians, the need for more primary care physicians, and the social dimensions of workforce policy.
