By 2025, the wait to see a doctor could get a lot longer if the current number of students training to be primary care physicians doesn't increase soon, according to a new University of Missouri study. Jack Colwill, professor emeritus of family and community medicine in the MU School of Medicine, and his research team found that the U.S. could face a shortage of up to 44,000 family physicians and general internists in less than 20 years, due to a skewed compensation system that rewards specialists increasingly more than primary care practitioners. The researchers are more optimistic about the future supply of general pediatricians.  Today, generalist physicians are a third of the U.S. physician workforce and are responsible for more than half of all patient visits at doctors' offices.  "Concern about the supply of generalists is not new," said Colwill, who also is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine. "It has been with us since the 1960s and was gradually improving. However, during the past decade, the number of generalist graduates has fallen by 22 percent and declines continue as medical school graduates enter other specialties. At the same time, the U.S. population is increasing by about one percent each year, and the baby boomer generation will significantly increase the number of Americans older than 65 by 2025.  Typically, older adults seek care from generalists nearly three times each year, double the rate of adults younger than 65. Because of this, Colwill and his researchers expect the number of doctor visits to increase by 29 percent by 2025. At the same time, they project that the supply of general internists and family physicians will increase less than 5 percent.