Academic Medicine and Rural Health System Partnerships: Enhancing Education While Advancing Physician Workforce Priorities.

A worsening shortage of rural physicians paralleling increasing health disparities demands attention. Past and ongoing efforts to address this shortage have had positive effects and can inform new strategies to achieve even greater impact. Interventions have included the development of regional medical school campuses and rural-focused tracks to recruit medical students from rural areas, expansion of rural-based graduate medical education (GME) programs and tracks, and use of institutional and individual financial incentives for rural-based training and/or practice.