New England Journal of Medicine
March 6, 2014  Vol. 370 No. 10
http://www.nejm.org/toc/nejm/medical-journal

Review Article
Global Health: Global Supply of Health Professionals
N. Crisp and L. Chen
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Excerpt
There is a global crisis of severe shortages and marked maldistribution of health professionals that is exacerbated by three great global transitions — demographic changes, epidemiologic shifts, and redistribution of the disability burden. Each of these transitions exerts a powerful force for change in health care systems, the roles of health professionals, and the design of health professional education.1-5 Every country will have to respond to these global pressures for change.

There are many other reasons that it is important to think globally about the education and role of health professionals.6 The knowledge base of the profession is global in scope, and there is increasing cross-national transfer of technology, expertise, and services. Health professionals are migrating in what is now effectively a global market for their talent, while patients are also traveling for treatment. One quarter of the doctors in the United States come from abroad, and the “medical tourism” market for travel to such countries as Thailand and Singapore is growing at a rate of 20% annually.7,8 All people worldwide are threatened by risks such as global infectious epidemics and climate change. Health professionals globally are interlinked and interdependent, facing shared challenges