Healthcare planning urged by Association of Academic Health Centers

Creating a planning group to address healthcare challenges on a national level could help ease the looming shortage of doctors, nurses and other health professionals, a panel told reporters at a news conference. The recommendation by Nancy Dickey, president of Texas A&M University's Health Science Center, and Shelton Retchin, CEO of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, echoes a study conducted by a nonprofit seeking to improve the country's healthcare system. The Association of Academic Health Centers said that the federal government needs to develop a national health work force policy that would help recruit and retain the hundreds of thousands of physicians needed to serve a growing and aging population.