On the supply of physicians
P. I. Buerhaus and G. D. Zuidema
University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor 48109-0608.
The congressionally created Council of Graduate Medical Education is
conducting a study to assess the adequacy of the current and future supply
of physicians in six specialties. The study is revising and updating the
needs-based method used by the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory
Committee and using this method to project the requirements for physicians
for the next two decades. Projections on the supply of physicians will be
based on the latest data from the federal government's Bureau of Health
Profession's health manpower model. Previous physician manpower studies are
reviewed to provide a historic perspective and a frame of reference for the
variables, data sources, and assumptions being considered by the Council of
Graduate Medical Education study.
