To address the shortage, new medical schools are opening with an emphasis on primary care and others are changing their curricula to boost the number of graduates interested in the field. Medical school professors are pairing students with family doctors and assigning them to community clinics so they see firsthand what it's like to practice preventive care and manage chronic diseases. The vast majority of U.S. medical school students have long pursued careers as neurologists, cardiologists or other specialists, resulting in an acute shortage of primary-care physicians that will only get worse as more family doctors retire.