OR Practice—Policy Decision Modeling of the Costs and Outputs of Education in Medical Schools

This paper presents the results of a project designed to develop a methodology to aid policy decision making in statewide medical education systems. The methodology requires the development of quantitative models that project the state's future investment in medical education, as well as the effects of potential policy proposals on the costs of medical education, on state costs, and on physician manpower supply. To build these models, we collected and analyzed extensive data from one statewide medical education system. We discuss the development of our methodology, its application in the strategic planning by the state's educational leaders, its significance in the policy formulation process, and we offer guidelines for future research.