Addressing the Impending Physician Shortage: An Examination of Strategies to Increase Graduate Medical Education via SWOT-AHP Model

Abstract

This study assesses government initiatives on global physician shortages using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate educational strategies to increase medical graduates by the SWOT-AHP Model. A systematic review was conducted to compile existing solutions to physician shortages, followed by a Delphi survey to gather expert insights for SWOT analysis. Expert judgements were used to rank the strategies using the AHP methodology. Calculations of importance level, group weights and consistency ratios, and selection of optimal strategies to be implemented were done through the Choice Expert software. From the results, three identified areas are very critical to intervene: medical education, admission processes and non-physician providers. Strategies include innovative pathways to medical education that increase access, as well as the establishment of medical schools in regions that are underserved by healthcare to address regional disparities in access to care. Enhancement of retention of primary care physicians through improvement in working conditions, reduction of administrative burden, financial incentives and job satisfaction is stressed. Other priorities include expanding services to underserved areas through telehealth adoption, scope of practice expansion for non-physician providers and team-based care models. This study concludes that the tested interventions can help ease physician shortages without compromising the quality of medical education, training and patient care. It provides policymakers with practical recommendations on how to design targeted, sustainable strategies that ensure equal access to physician services.