The physician workforce: broadening the search for solutions

• Published in: Health affairs (Millwood, Va.) Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 252 - 257
• Main Authors: Stoddard, J, Sekscenski, E, Weiner, J
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: United States The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE 01.01.1998
• Subjects: Accreditation; Canada; Children; Colleges & universities; Conferences; Developed countries; Education; Emigration; Entrepreneurship; Family physicians; Federal agencies; Financing; Health care; Health education; Health services; Health Workforce; Hospitals; Humans; Immigration; Immigration policy; Industrialized nations; International Cooperation; Investments; Labor force; Low income areas; Management; Medical education; Medical personnel; Medical technology; Physicians; Physicians - supply & distribution; Planning; Policy Making; Politicians; Primary care; Primary Health Care; Private practice; Public health; Reforms; Regulation; Shortages; Social planning; Specialization; Statistical data; Supply & demand; Teachers; Terminology as Topic; Transnationalism; United Kingdom; United States; Workforce; United States > US; United Kingdom > UK; Canada
• ISSN: 0278-2715; 1544-5208
• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.17.1.252

Discordance between supply and distribution of physicians on the one hand and perceived physician requirements on the other is notable across most Western countries. Such divergences not only are observed in market-based systems, but indeed are seen even within highly regulated health care systems. The nature of the physician workforce in a given nation is determined by an amalgam of personal initiative and investment, public education policy, social planning, and prevailing market forces. In the belief that a better comparative understanding of these forces would be useful in making national policy, the representatives of the US, Canada, and UK convened in late 1996 for the purpose of sharing historical, current, and anticipated analyses of physician workforce issues in their respective countries. The highlights of the conference are presented.