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Having been in the practice of "rural" general surgery for the last decade, plus working in a US Air Force small hospital practice, I must echo Bill Rainer's comments regarding caution in designing a track for rural-based surgeons.¹ In fact, a separate track would likely exacerbate the already often contentious relationships between small town and big city surgeons. It is difficult enough to deal with the growing need for the training centers to maintain a patient base, often at our expense, but to add the question of adequacy or intent of training credentials would certainly add to the wedge that practice economics drives between us these days.

The better answer is to provide better exposure to rural medicine during residency—not just watching cases as a preceptee third or fourth year medical student, but being in the pit with them for 2 to 3 months, living the life. The 3 months . . . [Full Text of this Article]