State retention of medical school graduates

State governments support medical schools in their states for various reasons. A major reason is the perception that graduates tend to practice in the state where they attend medical school. In a study reported here, the authors examined this assumption by investigating the experience of physicians currently active in medical practice. The entire population of active U.S. physicians who graduated from U.S. medical schools was examined, as well as four selected cohorts of U.S. medical school graduates, using the American Medical Association’s Physician Masterfile. The ability of states to retain their medical school graduates is related to physician characteristics (age, medical school, and practice specialty) as well as to state characteristics (population, physician-to-population ratio, and per capita income). The results indicate that, overall, the argument that states should support medical schools in order to ensure an adequate supply of physicians is less compelling than in the past, for reasons often beyond the control of the individual states.