Second Primary Care Physician Workforce Development Summit Works to Tackle the Physician Shortage

The Primary Care Physician Workforce Development Summit Phase II commenced on September 16 and sought to further address the shortage of primary care physicians in the state of Arizona. 

Hosted at the Bear Down Conference Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, the gathering continued the mission of the previous summit — providing further insight on coordinating statewide efforts, aligning resources and supporting bold, collaborative strategies.

“Primary care is the core mission of our school since its founding,” said Fredric E. Wondisford, MD, MS, MBA, dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. “You will hear about where we would like to go with primary care into the periphery of the state in rural areas.”

The previous summit — held January 14 to 15, 2025 — brought educational leaders, health care organizations and policymakers together to address Arizona’s urgent and growing shortage of primary care physicians. 

Organized by the Arizona Primary Care Physician Workforce Group, this summit focused on evaluating the progress that has been made since January, aligning the strategic priorities and defining concrete next steps to advance primary care workforce solutions.

Katie Brite, MD, associate dean of Community Engagement at the U of A College of Medicine – Phoenix, overviewed progress made since the last summit and recognized the importance of fostering collaboration when understanding how to address Arizona’s rapid population growth and physician shortage.

“We are excited to work with programs that are developing Graduate Medical Eduction (GME) and help contribute to these statewide resources,” Dr. Brite said. “We know the work is really important, and we want to be a resource for all of our developing GME partners.”

According to Dr. Brite, approximately 25% of Arizona’s health care workforce are 65 years of age and above. Arizona faces a projected deficit of more than 1,900 primary care physicians by 2030.

Lauren Erdelyi, DrPH, program manager for Area Health Education Centers SI/GME Consortium, spoke about the data discussed in the previous summit regarding this deficit.

According to Erdelyi, only 35.4% of primary care physician needs are met in AZ and maldistribution disproportionately impacts rural, Tribal and border regions.

Erdelyi also provided key factors to figuring out the origin of the crisis — such as policy and system factors, regulation requirements, pipeline and training capacities, and retention and workforce sustainability.

Susie Cannata, a contract lobbyist for the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and Merima Bucaj, DO, MBA, FAAFP, an assistant clinical professor for the College of Medicine – Phoenix’s Family, Community and Preventive Medicine clinical series, spoke about the policy landscape over the last year. 

Current dynamics facing primary care include budget unpredictability and divided government. Because of the current political split in Arizona’s government, much policy that needs passage requires bipartisan support. 

On the federal level, the passage of H.R.1. will lead to a lower Medicaid spending — estimated to be $806 billion from 2025-2034.

“The predictions are about 200,000 to 350,000 more people will be uninsured,” Cannata said. “It will cause a $2-3 billion hit in federal Medicaid spending in Arizona and people will have an increased hard time getting and retaining Medicaid coverage here.”

Cheryl O’Malley, MD, MACP, FHM, vice dean of the college’s GME and Sharry Veres, MD, MHSM, professor and chair of the college’s Department of Family, Community and Preventive Medicine, spoke about the workforce data regarding health care in Arizona.

Currently, Arizona is ranked 27^th nationally for medical students per 100,000 population and is ranked 36^th nationally for GME positions per 100,000 people, a mismatch leading to exporting physicians for residency training after medical school. To meet the national average, Arizona needs to have 2,000 more GME slots.

According to Dr. O’Malley, out of the 1,031 University of Arizona and Banner GME graduates, approximately 35% practice in Banner Health while another 31% are practicing in another Arizona system. The remaining graduates are practicing outside of Arizona.

“It’s been really encouraging to see that commitment to the state is really important, whether or not the graduates stay within the specific health care system,” Dr. O’Malley said.

Leonid L. Chepelev, MD, PhD, associate professor of Radiology at the University of Toronto, and Frank J. Rybicki, MD, PhD, chair of the college’s Department of Radiology, discussed potential roles of artificial intelligence in health care. 

Challenges with applying artificial intelligence include managing costs, protecting privacy of patients and checking biases.

However, there are opportunities of enhancing care with AI. Dr. Chepelev cited a study where an AI tool was used for population-level breast cancer screening and another study where an AI-guided deep vein thrombosis diagnosis occurred with ultrasound imaging. 

Other speakers at the summit included David Valenzuela, MD, a physician executive in primary care and pediatrics in association with Banner Medical Group – Arizona. Valenzuela led a discussion about team-based care and expansion of advanced practice providers within primary care in a way that can enhance a primary care physicians patient care model, efficiency and wellbeing.

In addition to the presentation, the summit hosted various breakout and networking sessions to foster discussion for determining next steps to combat the primary care physician crisis Az faces. These action items will be summarized and distributed to summit attendees and statewide leadership to continue working towards primary care physician shortage solutions. 

The event concluded with a commitment session followed by a networking social hour at Culinary Dropout.