Manpower resources for research

Several trends in medical education affect our supply of future physicians. The number of new physicians has increased so that each year there is an excess of about 6000 over the number of physicians produced per year a decade ago. Increasing numbers of women and members of minority groups are entering the profession as well. These new students are being subjected to increased social pressures to elect primary-care careers, and although there is ample evidence that a significant portion will continue to choose subspecialty careers, fewer of them may be interested in traditional academic and research careers. We must make academic and research careers sufficiently attractive so that an adequate manpower resource of physicians is maintained for the future. This can be done by improving the structure of training programs and by fostering research opportunities for young investigators.