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Thomas C. Ricketts, PhD, MPH

JAMA. 2009;302(15):1701-1702.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The analysis of current estimates of the number of physicians practicing in the United States by Staiger and colleagues¹ in this issue of JAMA touches on a topic that is both arcane and central to policy debates. The arcane part is how physicians are counted; the policy part is how their contributions to the economy and to social needs are estimated.

The study by Staiger et al¹ examines a central source of data on the supply of physicians, the American Medical Association (AMA) Physician Masterfile. This is a longstanding inventory of the supply of all physicians, alive and dead, practicing medicine or not. Its origins trace back to 1906 when the AMA attempted to identify all practicing physicians in the United States, members and nonmembers.² The data file became widely accepted as the authoritative source of information about the number and location of physicians to . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliation: University of North Carolina, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

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