Report of the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee and Health Manpower Development

Abstract

The federally chartered Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee projected a shortage of approximately 12,000 general and child psychiatrists by 1990. The committee's methods of analysis and recommendations have been criticized on grounds ranging from the accuracy of its data to the appropriateness of federal involvement in free-market issues. Yet the GMENAC report appears to have contributed to a recent reversal of psychiatric recruitment trends, and psychiatrists should be aware of its further implications for clinical and academic psychiatry. We analyzed the GMENAC process as one element among many that will determine future health care personnel development trends.