Physicians are tasked every day with finding ways to treat problems. The Physician Retraining & Reentry program was, likewise, created by physicians as a solution to a festering issue. Noting both a decrease in the number of primary care physicians and an increase in health problems in so many of the nation’s communities, PRR was developed to address both.

Dr. Leonard Glass, a former UC San Diego School of Medicine professor, began PRR in 2010 as an online educational program aimed at increasing the primary care physician workforce. A few years later, he began collaborating with faculty from the School of Medicine and recruited Dr. David Bazzo, Dr. William Norcross and Dr. Stephen Miller to help lead PRR. Bazzo and Norcross were already serving as directors of UCSD School of Medicine’s Physician Assessment and Clinical Education Program — positions they still hold.

With the goal of giving physicians in good standing the tools and training they need to re-invent or return to the practice of medicine, PRR offers retraining and certification in general practice for physicians who want to change specialties, transition to or out of retirement or volunteer to help communities in need.

“When you look at healthcare and the manpower available to deliver it, there is definitely a shortage,” says Bazzo, who still serves as a PRR director. “There is strong evidence to show that, when there are more primary care physicians available, health care costs go down because people have access to preventative exams and early interventions.”

The leadership team brought in experts in family and internal medicine and educational design to create PRR and provide a program that educates motivated and experienced physicians in delivering outstanding care to patients in a primary care setting.

The breadth of knowledge a primary care physician must have is quite large, but PRR gives physicians the requisite knowledge and skills they need to easily pivot into a demanding — and in-demand — role.

To learn more about how the PRR program works, please click here.