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Some first-year doctors are working 30 hours in a row at dozens of hospitals around the country in a test of work-hour limits that were imposed in 2011 because of fears that inexperienced, sleep-deprived physicians might jeopardize patients. The 30-hour shifts, which were banned four years ago, are one element of a $9 million research project partly funded by the National Institutes of Health to determine the best way to train novice physicians while maintaining patient care. (Bernstein, 10/28)

The extent of the nation’s overall shortage of physicians remains a matter of considerable debate, but almost no one disputes that primary care physicians for adults — internists and family care doctors — are in short supply. This is especially true in rural communities such as Greensboro (population 2,500) and inner cities, as well as places in between. In the Washington region, there is a shortage of primary care specialists in the eastern half of the District, stretching into Prince George’s County, portions of Southern Maryland and much of the Eastern Shore, federal data show. (Bernstein, 10/29)