Diego Marroquin and Jason Denoncourt are students on the "Accelerated MD" track at UMass Chan Medical School — one of 33 programs that offers the option to compress four years of medical school into three for students who know they want to go into general medicine.

Marroquin believes the fast-track programs could be a potential solution to a big problem: a shortage of doctors .

By 2036, the United States is predicted to be short as many as 40,000 primary care physicians, in part because of an aging population, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

"This is one model that can really help produce physicians faster," said Dr. Joan Cangiarella, chair of the consortium for accelerated programs at NYU Langone Health. "You make sure that the core content and everything

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