| The cost of pursuing a medical career in the military: a tale of five specialties. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 20671458 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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PURPOSE: The physician payment system is a focus of potential reform in the United States. The authors explored the effects of the military's method of physician payment on physicians' returns on educational investment for several specialties. METHOD: This retrospective, observational study used national data from 2003 and standard financial techniques to calculate the net present value-the current value of an expected stream of cash flows at a particular rate of interest-of the educational investments of medical students in ten 30-year career paths: either military or civilian careers in internal medicine, psychiatry, gastroenterology, general surgery, or orthopedics. RESULTS: At a 5% discount rate, in the civilian world, the lowest return on an educational investment accrued to psychiatrists ($1.136 million) and the highest to orthopedists ($2.489 million), a range of $1.354 million. In the military, the lowest returns accrued to internists ($1.377 million) and the highest to orthopedists ($1.604 million); however, the range was only $0.227 million, one-sixth that found in the civilian sector. The authors also found that most military physicians do not remain in the military for their full careers. CONCLUSIONS: Choosing a military career substantially decreases the net present value of an educational investment for interventionalists, but it does so only modestly for primary care physicians. Further, a military career path markedly diminishes specialty-specific variation in the net present values of educational investment. Adopting a military structure for engaging medical students might help reverse the current trend of declining interest in primary care. |
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Authors:
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William A Cronin; Jessica A Morgan; William B Weeks |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges Volume: 85 ISSN: 1938-808X ISO Abbreviation: Acad Med Publication Date: 2010 Aug |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2010-07-30 Completed Date: 2010-09-21 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 8904605 Medline TA: Acad Med Country: United States |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 1316-20 Citation Subset: AIM; IM |
Affiliation:
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Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Career Choice* Costs and Cost Analysis Education, Medical / economics* Humans Military Medicine / education* Occupations / economics* Physicians / economics* Retrospective Studies United States Young Adult |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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