The Legislature of Alabama hereby finds and declares that physicians engaged in family practice are in critical short supply in Alabama, and further, that the distribution of such numbers that are available has created many areas of shortage, especially in the underserved rural areas of Alabama. The Legislature hereby declares that it regards the furtherance of a greater supply of family physicians to be of great importance and further declares the establishment of programs pursuant to this chapter to be desirable, necessary, and an economical method of increasing the number of family physicians needed to provide medical services to the people of Alabama, especially in underserved rural areas.
Ala. Code § 22-4A-1 (1975)