Information technologies and health care. 2. The need for new technologies to offset the shortage of physicians.

The first communication in this series, published in the January issue ( Arch Intern Med 125: 157-161), examined medical care as a system and concluded that the prerequisite to providing "the best known care to all who need it" is utilization of all knowledge relevant to making the best clinical decisions in each of the individual patients. Because this task belongs uniquely to physicians, this key requirement consists of three main issues, namely, the supply of physicians, their ability to obtain the relevant knowledge, and their ability to utilize it unerringly in patient care. Some of the difficulties of meeting each of these issues by conventional approaches are discussed in this and the succeeding communication. The number of physicians needed on a worldwide basis cannot be accurately estimated because of uncertainties regarding at least the ability to finance medical care in the various economies and the readiness of the various peoples