t address a number of other critical issues. These issues relate to physician representation from minority groups, the imbalance of specialists and generalists, and geographic distribution. These issues are important to the development of an equitable health care system: "deficiencies in the physician work force, the medical-education system, and public policy . . . hinder efforts to provide high-quality and affordable health care for all people in the United States" (Rivo and Kindig, 1996, p. 892).
Although the number of minority physicians has been increasing, they remain underrepresented in proportion to the size of the minority population. By the year 2000, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans will constitute almost one fourth of the population yet "they represent only 10% of entering allopathic and osteopathic medical students, 7% of practicing physicians, and 3% of medical faculty" (Rivo and Satcher, 1993, p. 1075). Increasing the number of minority physicians is vital to meeting health care needs because these physicians tend to serve underrepresented areas in greater numbers than non-minority physicians. For example, in the Hispanic population, language is often a barrier to the delivery of quality health care, which underscores the need for more Hispanic physicians to serve this segment of the population. In addition, minority physicians act as important role models for their communities.
Limiting the number of graduate medical students trained will have an adverse effect on increasing the number of minority physicians unless special efforts are made. Medical schools must exhibit a commitment to training students who will practice in urban and minority communities. This commitment can take various forms based on policies to recruit, admit, and retain minority students.
The federal government's intervention in graduate school training must address the imbalance between generalists and specialis...