The Iowa Medical Society (IMS) recently released a report detailing 24 proposed solutions to combat the physician shortage crisis in Iowa. IMS and its leadership team crafted the report after a Dec. 6, 2024, meeting of nearly 60 physician leaders, health care executives, policy experts and community leaders from across the state who convened for the Operation IOWA (Innovative Opportunities for Workforce Action) summit. Iowa currently ranks 44th in the nation in physicians per capita, according to Common Sense Institute, and the U.S. is experiencing a shortage of an estimated 64,000 physicians, according to GlobalData PLC. The Operation IOWA report breaks down the solutions by three career phases of a physician — early career, mid-career and late career — starting with increasing the number of residency training positions and providing financial support of medical educators across Iowa. IMS will host a Healthcare Workforce Summit on May 14 that will more broadly address the health care workforce shortage and include nurses, ancillary providers, dental services and others in addition to physicians. “Our next steps will be multi-faceted with the Operation IOWA report,” IMS CEO Steve Churchill said in a prepared statement. “We’ll be meeting with legislators and policymakers, local chambers of commerce, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Des Moines University, Iowa Workforce Development, and other key stakeholders over the next several months to talk specifics and how we move forward with each and every one of these initiatives.”