Your Future in Family Medicine

1. Your Future in Family Medicine Why you want to be a family physician… (and you may not even realize it!)

2. What does a Family Physician do? • Provide comprehensive and complete health care, regardless of disease complexity and age, to: • Individuals and families • Adult women and men • Infants, children, and adolescents • Family physicians are more broadly classified as “primary care” physicians

3. What are the primary care specialties? Family Medicine Pediatrics Internal Medicine Obstetrics/Gynecology

4. What does a family physician provide to their patients? Prevention and management of acute injuries and illnesses Health promotion In-patient hospital care, including ICU and emergency department coverage Management of chronic diseases Maternity care Well-child care and child development Primary mental health care Rehabilitation prescriptions and oversight Supportive and end-of-life care

5. Why is Primary Care important? Fewer cases and deaths caused by colon and cervical cancer Fewer deaths due to heart and lung disease Fewer ER visits and hospital admissions Fewer health disparities Increased detection of breast cancer Increased preventative care Increased vaccination rates for children, elderly Increased health education

6. What attributes are important to the family physician? • A deeper understanding to the whole person • What other factors are affecting the health of this person? Socially? Culturally? Spiritually? Economically? • Working as a partner with the patient over many years • “I will be with you each step of the way.” • The ability to “humanize” health care • A command of complexity while simplifying it for the patient • Patients generally do not understand the medical jargon

7. A typical week in the life of a family physician…

8. Where do people go with their health concerns?

9. Are Family Physicians in demand? The #1 most recruited specialty in 2009 The primary care specialty most in demand $173,000 – Average signing salary for a family physician after expenses Growth in primary care from 2005/2006 to 2008/2009 was 132%

10. Family Physician Lifestyle • Spend 35.2 hours per week in direct patient care • Work an average 47 weeks per year in patient-related or professional activities • See an average of 84 patients per week in office-based visits (36 in other settings) • Have an average of five weeks for vacation or CME-related activities per year

11. Now that you know there is a demand for primary care physicians, is a medical career right for you?

12. Should you consider a career in medicine? • Consider the characteristics of a rewarding career: • Service: allows you to help people • Knowledge: the ever expanding need for learning new skills and information • Action: allows you to be around others, make decisions and make things happen • Respect: your work and contributions are important to individuals and the community • Security: enables you to earn a good living and provides for a consistent and secure future • Mobility: your skills and knowledge are in demand • Flexibility: offers you lots of career options from the same base of knowledge

13. What kind of training does it take to be a physician? • College • Study Hard, enjoy your major. • Biology is not a required major for medical school! • Take MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test) during junior year • Apply to medical school during senior year • Prerequisites for medical school – 1 year each of: • Biology w/ lab • General Chemistry w/ lab • Organic Chemistry w/ lab • Physics w/ lab

14. What kind of training does it take to be a physician? • Medical School • 4 years • Basic Sciences – first 2 years; primarily classroom work • Clinical Sciences – last 2 years; primarily hospital/clinic-based work • Admission is very competitive • Most medical schools give preference to in-state applicants

15. The Competition • Average number of applicants per medical position is 13 • Median MCAT score of accepted applicants is approximately 27 • Acceptance rates are highest for the highest GPAs and approximately 50% for GPAs from 3.40 to 3.59

16. Medical Schools in Georgia

17. Georgia Medical School Tuitions 2007 • Emory University $39,300 • Medical College of Georgia $13,550 • Mercer University $34,932 • Morehouse School of Medicine $27,000 • Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine $40,557 (2011)

18. Student Debt Statistics • $156,456 average educational debt, class of 2009 • 79% of 2009 graduates have debt of at least $100,000 • 58% of graduates have a debt of at least $150,000 • 87% of graduating medical students carry outstanding loans

19. Scholarships and Loan Repayment Programs • Georgia Physician Loan Repayment Program • $25,000 per year with a 2 year minimum service requirement at an eligible practice site • Physicians for Rural Areas Assistance Program • $25,000 per year for a 12 month service commitment. Maximum of 4 loans for a total of $100,000/48 months • State Medical Education Board of Georgia Scholarship Program • $20,000 per year for a rural practice commitment

20. National Health Service Scholarship • $50,000 loan repayment in exchange for 2 years of service in an approved site • Military Scholarships • 100% tuition and expenses paid • Monthly stipend • Minimum 3 year service requirement

21. What can you do now? Find a family physician and shadow them Visit www.GAFP.org for a list of participating physicians Spend several days – weeks experiencing the broad variety of medicine that family physicians practice every day! When applying to Medical school, ask them to write a letter of recommendation for you!