Scheffler, Richard M. Is There a Doctor in the House? Market Signals and Tomorrow's Supply of Doctors. Stanford General Books, 2008

Reviewed in CHOICE, June 2009.

Scheffler (health economics, Univ. of California, Berkeley) has written a policy handbook that uses multiple perspectives rather than a single unitary approach to examine the adequacy of current and future US physician supply. The book is data driven and decidedly empirical in the first half, which establishes the author's main points regarding the impact of training programs and managed care. However, the presentation is in the form of tables and graphs easily read by any undergraduate. The seven short chapters touch on all the major issues: geographic distributions, wait times, income and supply, managed care, aging, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, costs of medical education, rates of return, and specialty differentials. Scheffler concludes that a modest increase in physician supply (10-20 percent) is justified, but that the organization of practice and the orientation of incentives are more important in the long run. What is truly unusual and useful about the book are the 27 commentaries, a refreshingly informal set of conversations with more than a score of knowledgeable physicians and academic experts in the field. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. — T. E. Getzen, iHEA and Temple University

CHOICE the online review publication of the American Library Association