Trends in the physician workforce, 1980-2000

Over the past twenty-five years the nation has struggled with a series of physician workforce issues: determining the appropriate number of physicians needed and the appropriate number to produce; the role of international medical school graduates; the mix of primary care and non-primary care physicians; efforts to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in medicine and the supply of physicians in rural areas; and the impact of the growing number of female physicians. This paper documents physician workforce trends over the past twenty years, especially as they relate to these issues.