Medical demography: pathology's portrait in France

Assessment of care supply in terms of medical labor force is difficult beca use of the disparity of available darn. Using the medical specialty of path ology as an example. we present for the first time a demographic analysis b ased on the confrontation of main data sources. This study underlines some of the structural and dynamic problems which threaten the demographic stabi lity of the specialty. The public service suffers from a lack of practition ers, especially in regionalhospitals. Whereas one third of French pathologi sts work in the larger hospitals around Paris. in some other regions privat e services constitute the main component of the supply. Projections based o n the aging phenomenon and a reduction in entry indicate a future problem i n the renewal of generations of pathologists. The consequences of this prog rammed decrease in the number of French pathologists will be further exacer bated by the movement of the sex ratio in favor of women.