Lessons Learned from Many Nations : Specialty Physician Workforce

Abstract

This documentary search of international experiences was undertaken to gather information on situations, concepts, and models in the specialty physician workforce projection. The result was information on the planning of the role and proportion of medical specialists at every level (global, national, and community) as well as on critical issues, such as chronic care, care for the aged, emergency care. This information is expected to be useful for the future manpower projection of specialty physicians in Thailand.  On the whole, there are two main groups of medical specialists - those at the primary-care level and those at the secondary- and tertiary- (or hospital-care) level. In some countries there is a third group - those involved in health promotion or self-care programs, but there is very limited information on this group.