Medical groups urge preservation of funds for education

More than 40 speciality physician groups have joined the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in an advertising campaign urging Congress to fight cuts to federal funding that supports doctor training at America’s teaching hospitals. As the nation faces a projected shortage of 90,000 doctors by 2020-from primary care physicians to surgeons to specialists for children-the groups maintain that these funding cuts would exacerbate the physician shortage and ultimately jeopardize patient access to care.

Among the organizations participating in the campaign are the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, the American College of Osteopathic Internists, the Society of General Internal Medicine, the Medical Group Management Association, and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.

The ad will run this week in Washington, DC, publications.