The Medical Education Commission Report 2002: trends indicate a steady state supply of physicians

This summary report for 2002 provides the detailed and updated data on all Graduate Medical Education (GME) residents and fellows in Louisiana for the last academic year. The 2002 match results and the trend in matching over the last 4 years depict the consistent successful match by Louisiana institutions. The totals and components of GME in Louisiana are steady. The infusion of gradually increasing numbers of physicians over the last 30 years in the United States and in Louisiana is quantified to indicate the present consistent steady state production and supply. The ripple effect into the physician population of this infusion now shows the expected beginning stabilization, although incomplete at this juncture. While demand for physician services for healthcare delivery is difficult to define and quantify, the inexorable increase of utilization of healthcare services portends a future mismatch of supply and demand, a shortage not a surplus.