Medical school admissions, specialty selection, and distribution of physicians
S. Cullison, C. Reid and J. M. Colwill
This review of the University of Missouri-Columbia medical graduates, with
similar data from two other studies, supports the thesis that hometown size
and speciality choice are interrelated predictors of the community in which
physicians practice. Physicians with nonmetropolitan backgrounds were two
to three times as likely to select nonmetropolitan practice as physicians
with urban backgrounds. Physicians entering family medicine were almost
three times as likely to select nonmetropolitan practice as physicians in
other primary-care specialities. Presence of both predictors
(nonmetropolitan background and selection of family medicine) resulted in
two thirds selecting nonmetropolitan practice. However, selection of family
medicine by graduates with urban backgrounds or selection of other
specialties by graduates with nonmetropolitan backgrounds did not
appreciably increase the likelihood of nonmetropolitan practice. These data
have implications for medical school admissions policy and curriculum.
