Does it really matter???

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Dox4lyfe

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If there's a shortage of physicians, does it really matter which med school or residency someone chooses to go to if he or she is only interested in private practice?
 
Do you mean private primary care practice specifically? It is difficult to start up your own private clinic from scratch. If you are looking to join a private practice and eventually separate, going to residency in the area you'd eventually like to work would be helpful from a networking standpoint (don't sign a noncompete!). What med school you go to affects everything to a variable degree (your training, your impression of different fields of medicine, boards prep, regional competitiveness for residencies, etc).
 
"Physician shortage" is more of a sound bite than a realistic look at the situation. The problem is better cast as one of healthcare delivery, or physician distribution. We have physician shortages in rural areas where people are less likely to want to live. We have a whole lot of physicians in Boston but not so many in smalltown, USA. We also have a high ratio of specialists-to-generalists. Primary care has healthcare shortages - this imbalance between supply and demand can be met not only by physicians but also by mid-level practitioners. The problem is a lot more nuanced than "physician shortage."

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/upshot/a-doctor-shortage-lets-take-a-closer-look.html
 
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Do you matter? Do I matter? Do these questions matter?

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