Don’t believe all of the hype about the “challenges” and “tribulations” and “massive bureaucratic paperwork”. While each of these irritating aspects of medical practice among primary care physicians is a well documented reason behind the antipathy and low morale suffered by so many in the specialty, its true loathing by soon-to-be-graduating med students all comes down to one thing, and only one thing: the lack of decent compensation.

More pay in a particular specialty tends to mean more U.S. medical school graduates fill residencies in those fields at teaching hospitals, Dr. Mark Ebell of the University of Georgia found in a … study. Family medicine had the lowest average salary last year, $186,000, and the lowest share of residency slots filled by U.S. students, 42 percent. Orthopedic surgery paid $436,000, and 94 percent of residency slots were filled by U.S students. Meanwhile, medical school is getting more expensive. The average graduate last year had $140,000 in student debt, up nearly 8 percent from the previous year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

But is primary care membership a dying breed, as this foxnews.com article suggests? At this point, it seems to be the one aspect of medicine which will attract, at least in the near term, people who really want to make a difference. And the value on that is both priceless and indescribable.

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