A panel convened by the Macy Foundation today recommended giving nurse practitioners and physician assistants more authority to deliver primary care. To strengthen the nation's primary care system, the group also called for increased funding for primary care, incentives to attract more people to the field, and changes to education and training for primary care providers. "We hope that payers and policymakers at all levels, as well as academic health centers, will take these recommendations to heart and act on them quickly," said panel co-chair Victor Dzau, M.D., CEO of Duke University Health System.