Physician shortages have been a healthcare problem for several years. According to a 2018 study done by the Association of American Medical Colleges [1], there could be a shortage of up to 120,000 physicians in the United States by 2030, including up to 49,300 primary care physicians and 73,700 specialists. Considering there were 1,045,000 physicians estimated in the United States in 2013, this represents a need to increase by about 10%.
Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime. We would sit down and think which way To walk and pass our long love’s day ... The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapt power [1] ....” DNA is a coy mistress, difficult to interpret, devouring of too much time for busy practitioners. Yet technology’s power in the form of genomic testing [2,3] (Table 1) is now so all-encompassing that no caring physician would let their families languish in molecular confusion. Genomics can postpone the grave’s embrace, its pivotal impact on reproduction and pregnancy justifying a feminine metaphor.
