eration, the Association of American

Medical Colleges (AAMC) recommended that medical schools in the United States increase their enrollment by 30 % by 2015 and that residency positions be increased to accommodate the growth in U.S. medical school graduates1. This recommendation is based on the belief that there will be a substantial physician workforce shortage in the future as the economy continues to expand, physi-cians retire, and patients continue to demand more specialized care. How this prediction will affect the workforce dy-namic of orthopaedic surgery and other specialties must be examined carefully. Orthopaedic surgery, like most specialties, has an interest in better understanding how many physicians will be required in the specialty in the future. This is not to suggest that there is one single correct number of physicians in a specialty; in fact, the medical system has proven to be highly adaptive. However, it is in the public’s interest to have a distribution of orthopaedic sur-geons that promotes high-quality care. *This report is based on a symposium presente