77 | Addressing a Primary Care Workforce Crisis

The latest episode of On the Evidence, the Mathematica podcast, explores the primary care workforce crisis, a complex and long-standing problem that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Guests Sue Lin, Luci Leykum, Julie Schilz, and Diane Rittenhouse discuss recent research on the nature of the problem as well as evidence-based solutions for strengthening primary care. Lin is the deputy office director of the Office of Quality Improvement within the Bureau of Primary Health Care at the Health Resources and Services Administration. Leykum is a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin who was involved in the creation of a report last year from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that looked ways to rebuild primary care. Schilz is a senior director on the Clinical and Quality Partners team at the Primary Care Development Corporation, which recently published a data brief on investing in primary care to achieve better health and equity in the United States. Rittenhouse is a family physician by training and a senior fellow at Mathematica, where she co-authored a report for the California Health Care Foundation that reviewed evidence that could inform health policies aimed at increasing the size and diversity of the primary care workforce in California. A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/addressing-a-workforce-crisis-in-primary-care-made-more-severe-by-the-covid-19-pandemic Have questions for our podcast guests? Julie Schilz and Diane Rittenhouse will be participating in a Twitter chat co-hosted by Mathematica on June 23 from 2 to 3 p.m. ET on challenges and opportunities for the primary care workforce. Use the hashtag #PrimaryCarePolicyChat to find the chat on Twitter. Read the 2021 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on implementing high quality primary care: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25983/implementing-high-quality-primary-care-rebuilding-the-foundation-of-health Read Mathematica’s 2021 review of evidence-based strategies for increasing the size and diversity of the primary care workforce in California: https://www.mathematica.org/publications/health-workforce-strategies-for-california-a-review-of-the-evidence Read the Primary Care Development Corporation’s May 2022 data brief on investing in primary care to improve health and equity: https://www.pcdc.org/resources/investing-in-primary-care-the-pathway-to-better-health-and-equity-in-the-united-states/