Geographic distribution of family physicians in Japan and the USA: a cross-sectional comparative study

Dr Yuji Okazaki

contribution: Study conception and design, Acquisition of data, Analysis and interpretation of data, Drafting of manuscript

position: MD

Dr Shuhei Yoshida

contribution: Acquisition of data, Analysis and interpretation of data, Critical revision

Saori Kashima

contribution: Acquisition of data, Analysis and interpretation of data, Critical revision

Japan

Prof Soichi Koike

contribution: Analysis and interpretation of data, Critical revision

Robert Bowman

contribution: Analysis and interpretation of data, Drafting of manuscript, Critical revision

United States

Bob Bowman began as a rural family physician and has facilitated health access workforce efforts in Texas, Tennessee, Nebraska, and Arizona, USA. He continues studies of health access contributions of various primary care sources using the Standard Primary Care Year measuring tool, and has also developed workforce distribution coding using concentrations of clinicians. He is working with Dignity Health and continues his efforts at the World of Rural Medical Education, Basic Health Access, and Physician Workforce Studies web sites and blogs (search Basic Health Access or Rural Medical Education).

Prof Masatoshi Matsumoto

contribution: Study conception and design, Analysis and interpretation of data, Drafting of manuscript, Critical revision

Japan

Masatoshi Matsumoto is the professor of rural health at Hiroshima University, Japan. He is a general practitioner who worked for some years in the least populated mountain village in rural Japan. He has taught rural health at Jichi Medical University, the Japanese medical school founded solely for producing rural doctors, for more than ten years. His academic interests are rural health policy, rural medical education, medical anthropology and rural community-based epidemiology.