This Sunday’s New York Times reported on “The Falling-Down Professions,” documenting plummeting morale among physicians (and lawyers as well). The reasons for doctors, according to the Times, range from outrageous demands of our current delivery system, to skeptical patients accessing bad science on the Internet, to a new generation that values creativity and entrepreneurialism above science and stability. The problem is striking close to home for those of us in the D.C. area. Tuesday’s Washington Post reported that Maryland faces a severe shortage of doctors by 2015.

The problem is real. And it’s critical. But, that’s where the ACC comes in. Quality First is helping to put the focus back where physicians know it should be: on quality patient care. And our workforce initiatives are looking at new ways to drive students to medicine and to cardiology in particular.

The ACC is on the job — we want to keep all of you on the job, too.