In 1992 the Association of American Medical Colleges created the Generalist Physician Task Force to develop a policy statement for the AAMC and to recommend ways to help reverse the trend away from generalism. The task force strongly endorsed using private-sector initiatives exerted through consensus and voluntary cooperation, although recognizing the indispensable role of government in defining the magnitude of the need for generalist physicians and in eliminating barriers to meeting the need. As a policy, the AAMC advocates an overall national goal that a majority of graduating medical students be committed to generalist careers (family medicine, general internal medicine, or general pediatrics) and that appropriate efforts be made by all schools so that this goal can be reached within the shortest possible time. To further this goal, the task force recommended strategies for the AAMC, schools of medicine, graduate medical education, and the practice environment.