WWAMI Physician Workforce 2005

Date
05/2005
Description

Data on physician supply, demand, and need in the WWAMI region have not been routinely collected or reported. This report responds to a request by the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) Primary Care Steering Committee to examine the current supply and distribution of physicians in the WWAMI region. These data can help inform and guide the UWSOM in the production of physicians for the WWAMI region. The analysis utilizes the 2005 AMA Masterfile to determine the population-based supply of physicians at the state and county level, analyzed by the discipline of physician, and whether they had graduated from, or trained at the University of Washington, which is the only medical school for the five-state WWAMI region. The emphasis on primary care is important as over one-third of the WWAMI population lives in rural areas and tends to be medically underserved, relying on primary care physicians for the majority of their medical needs.

Center
WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
Authors
Frederick Chen, Meredith Fordyce, Gary Hart