Manpower Needs by Specialty

When the project reported herein was initiated early in 1971, increasing number of writers on the subject of medical manpower were calling attention to the problem of physician distribution, both geographic and by specialty. Previously the most-often-repeated problem of the medical service bottleneck had been an immediate need for 50,000 doctors. However, recent writers have begun to cast doubt on such a shortage, and have suggested that the problem is one of distribution rather than sheer shortage. A few have said that if 50,000 physicians were added to the pool today, the shortages would still appear in the same places, the inner city neighborhoods and the rural towns. My own observations lend credence to these statements, and there is increasing evidence that physicians will continue to shun practice in these locales, placing high value on the geographic attributes of a practice setting. A national study of 16 statesponsored forgiveness