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Physicians spend 2 hours on EHR documentation for every 1 hour of patient care. AI scribes can reclaim 10–15 hours/week per physician — equivalent to adding 20% more capacity to the existing workforce.
The AAMC has proposed adding 3,000 Medicare-funded residency slots annually for 10 years. This single policy change would add ~30,000 physicians to the pipeline over a decade — the most direct lever available.
Deploy AI triage tools in primary care to handle 30–40% of routine diagnostic workload, freeing physicians to focus on complex cases. Pilots at Mayo Clinic show 23% reduction in physician time per patient.
Store-and-forward telehealth can extend one physician's reach to 3–5x more patients in rural HPSAs. Requires CMS reimbursement parity.
NYU Grossman and Kaiser Permanente have pioneered 3-year MD programs for students committed to primary care. Scaling this nationally could increase primary care physician output by 25% without new GME slots.
Expand the Conrad 30 waiver program to allow 50 J-1 visa physicians per state to practice in underserved areas. Doubling slots would add 1,000+ physicians to HPSAs annually.
Demand for healthcare will likely trend down as AI solves some major healthcare issues