Accession Alternatives for Military Physicians

The Department of Defense (DOD) employs more than 10,000 active-duty military physicians to support its medical operations. It sources physicians through two primary channels: training students in-house at the Uniformed Services University F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine (USU SoM), and sending students to civilian medical programs through the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program. To help answer questions about the value of these accession methods, IDA researchers examined one measure of the return on DOD’s investment in medical students — the effect of military accession of USU SoM students on years served on active duty.