How many doctors do we need? The tenth annual Duke Private Sector Conference

LEADERS of American medicine are divided over whether the nation faces a future physician surplus as a consequence of federal policies that encouraged medical schools and teaching hospitals to increase their production of new physicians. When the subject of a possible surplus is discussed, as it was recently at the tenth annual Private Sector Conference, sponsored by Duke University, Durham, NC, approaches for dealing with the question revolve around calls for a sharp reduction in the number of foreign medical graduates (FMGs) and upgrading the quality of training and the rigor of monitoring physician performance, thus easing out of medicine marginal practitioners. Most conference participants viewed turning to government for solutions as a last resort, but one that practicing physicians would likely increasingly encourage at the state level in their search for relief from the enlarging pool of professional competitors. This year's conference, organized as it is annually by William