A crisis looms, say experts, as a national shortage of surgeons and doctors — particularly in rural areas — threatens patients’ access to health care, reports USA Today.

The lack of new physicians, coupled with the aging baby-boomer population — and the impending retirement of many doctors in that generation — has created the current shortage, says Josef Fischer, chairman of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston.

Read The Chronicle’s article on grant makers’ response to America’s shortage of nurses.