PHILADELPHIA David A. Asch, MD, MBA, executive director of the Penn Medicine Center for Innovation and the Robert D. Eilers Professor of Health Care Management and Economics in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, has been appointed to serve as a member of the Institute of Medicine's new Committee on Governance and Financing of Graduate Medical Education.

The committee will be tasked with assessing the current regulation, financing, content, governance, and organization of U.S. graduate medical education (GME) and making recommendations for how to modify the system to "produce a physician workforce for a 21st century U.S. health care system that provides high quality preventive, acute, and chronic care, and meets the needs of an aging and more diverse population."

Among areas the committee will review, for example: the numbers of residency training slots in different specialty areas; the balance of primary care providers, specialists, and subspecialists; training sites; financing options; and the accreditation process for institutions that provide this training to new physicians. They will also examine relationships among safety net medical providers, community health/teaching health centers, and academic centers.

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Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $479.3 million awarded in the 2011 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2011, Penn Medicine provided $854 million to benefit our community.

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Penn Medicine Health Economist Named to IOM Committee on Graduate Medical Education Financing