Comparing to a primary care physician, no doubt that being a specialist is a more challenging job, also earning higher pay. I definitely agree that we need specification, in terms of science. Specification is a trend in most part of science and it is good and essential. One can find the disadvantages of such kind of specification like lost of the understanding of the whole scenary, but generally, the benefits of specification is obvious and greater than those disadvantages. Though the understanding of the basic general knowledge is needed, one cannot master the whole thing.
But the problem is now we are having too many. And according to an analysis by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and New York University, having too many specialists in the communities actually doesn't help improving the overall health status of the whole population.
Since all kinds of motivations drive medical students to become specialists rather than PCPs, how can we change people's concepts? I think we can change policy. Though it's not easy to figure out the best way to modify the situation, but it's important for policy makers to consider: how could we make people choosing PCP willingly rather than forcing them to? Maybe by increasing PCPs' salaries but by how much? A specialty-care physician would probably consider it unfair to see a PCP being paid as same as he is, as becoming a specialist definitely needs paying more effort and bearing more hardship.
I think the balancing effort would be an everlasting issue...
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