AMA backs medical school models

The American Medical Association’s position on physician shortages is not a one-off endorsement of a new teaching idea. It is part of a longer campaign to treat the shortage as a pipeline problem: who gets trained, where they train, and whether there are enough residency positions for graduates to complete the path into practice. Medical Economics reported that the AMA backed policies aimed at addressing shortages through medical school and training models. The underlying AMA position is broader than curriculum design alone. The group says physician shortages are tied to graduate medical education funding, residency slot limits and workforce distribution, especially in underserved communities. ### Why is the AMA talking about medical school models at all? (medicaleconomics.com) The AMA’s argument starts with capacity. In a 2014 policy report cited by Medical Economics, the organization said it supported “innovative education models” to help address physician shortages and improve access to care, particularly in underserved areas. That policy also called for federal, state and private support for graduate medical education and for increasing the number of residency slots. (medicaleconomics.com) The AMA’s more recent workforce materials make the same point in updated form. Its issue briefs say residency programs face two linked barriers — insufficient graduate medical education funding and too few training slots — and describe both as constraints on physician workforce expansion. ### Where is the bottleneck: medical school seats or residency slots? Residency is the tighter choke point in the AMA’s telling. U.S. medical schools have expanded over the past two decades, but a graduate cannot practice independently without residency training, and Medicare-backed residency funding has long been capped in ways that limit growth. (medicaleconomics.com) The AMA has repeatedly called for more Medicare-supported positions. (ama-assn.org) The AAMC has supplied the shortage estimate most often cited in that debate. Its workforce projections say the United States could face a physician shortage of up to 86,000 doctors by 2036, and AAMC President and CEO David J. Skorton has said sustained and increased investment in training is needed to mitigate those shortfalls. ### What does “innovative education models” actually mean? The phrase is broad, and the older Medical Economics piece does not spell out a single national model. (ama-assn.org) In practice, AMA and AAMC materials point to a mix of approaches: expanding training sites, strengthening team-based care, using technology more effectively, and aligning education with areas of greatest workforce need. The AMA’s ChangeMedEd materials describe medical education’s role as producing a workforce able to meet population needs, while AAMC advocacy documents pair workforce expansion with more efficient use of care teams and technology. (aamc.org) That suggests the debate is not only about adding seats, but also about how students and residents are trained inside care systems under staffing pressure. ### Why does this keep coming back to Congress? (medicaleconomics.com) Congress controls a large share of the financing structure because Medicare is the largest public funder of graduate medical education. That is why the AMA has tied its workforce message to legislation that would increase federally supported residency positions. The Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2025 would add 14,000 Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions over seven years, according to the AMA. (ama-assn.org) The organization has also supported related workforce bills tied to rural care and physician immigration pathways. ### What should readers watch next? The next concrete test is legislative, not rhetorical. If Congress advances the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act or related graduate medical education measures, hospitals and residency programs would have a clearer path to expand training capacity. (ama-assn.org) The second marker is institutional. AMA and AAMC workforce pages continue to update projections, policy briefs and education strategy materials, and those documents will show whether the push stays centered on residency expansion, team-based training and underserved-area placement. (ama-assn.org 1) (ama-assn.org 2)