ArticleHuman resources for health2025
Future gaps in the public provision of health services in Austria? A mixed-methods analysis for specialists in internal medicine.
Article in Human resources for health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPopulation growth and aging are likely to increase demand for healthcare providers, even in countries with high provider-to-population ratios. To plan appropriate policy measures, detailed information on supply and demand trends in the physician workforce for each medical specialty is essential. This article assesses the current supply of all specialists in internal medicine (general and subspecialties) in Austria and projects future supply and demand until 2035.
methodsOur analysis follows a framework for workforce planning consisting of four stages: (1) horizon scanning, (2) scenario generation, (3) workforce modelling, and (4) policy analysis. We use stakeholder workshops, interviews and an online survey (n = 484) in the first two stages. Future supply is modelled using stock-flow models, whereas demand is projected using regression modelling based on existing forecasts and extrapolations of historical care use. Different scenarios are used to account for uncertain developments. The two main settings of care in Austria-public hospitals and publicly financed outpatient care-are modelled separately.
resultsOverall, no severe shortage of specialists in internal medicine is expected in Austria until 2035. However, our analysis suggests that the two settings of care will experience very different developments: while the gap between supply and demand in public hospitals is expected to be small (± 5 percent), the supply of specialists in publicly financed outpatient care is projected to fall between 10 and 25 percent short of demand.
conclusionsWithout major reforms, capacity constraints will likely affect the publicly financed outpatient sector, hindering the desired shift from inpatient to outpatient care or driving patients into the private outpatient sector where higher user charges apply. Therefore, it is essential for policy makers to incentivize physicians to work in publicly financed outpatient care. Increasing enrolment in medical schools is not a suitable policy measure, as no significant shortage of specialists in internal medicine is expected overall.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.