The local supply of physicians in any community, especially smaller and rural communities, depends on a flow of physicians into those communities from the places where they train or from more populous locations that may have more than enough physicians to meet population needs.

This research brief explores whether it is possible to predict that a place will become more or less underserved based on the personal characteristics of physicians, especially primary care physicians, the characteristics of the counties from and to which they move, and their likelihood to move into or out of rural communities.