Group Applauds UW Medical Schools’ Focus On Primary Care

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) says the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is doing a good job graduating primary care physicians at time when they’re in high demand.

Over a three-year period, the percentage of UW medical school graduates entering family medicine was 16.5 percent. For that reason, the AAFP ranks UW ninth-highest as a pipeline to primary care.

The academy says family doctors provide more care for underserved and rural populations than any other specialty, and they’re often in short supply. Larry Pheifer, executive director of Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians, says there are 147 openings for family doctors in Wisconsin.

“There really is a need for family physicians,” Pheifer said. “A lot of what is happening with the Affordable Care Act and with patient-centered medical homes, there is really is more of an emphasis on team-based care, more of an emphasis on primary care, more of an emphasis on family physicians.”

Pheifer says medical groups and schools have put a lot of effort into getting more primary care physicians in the community, noting the work done by the Wisconsin Academy of Rural Medicine and the Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health program.

“There is just tremendous outreach that both of these medical schools and their residency training programs have done,” said Pheifer.

Wisconsin has two medical schools, one in Madison and the other in Milwaukee.