Getting the science right on the surgeon workforce issue.

In this article we summarize the perspectives given by a range of health policy researchers as presented at the fifth annual meeting of the Surgical Outcomes Club at the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons in Chicago, Illinois, on October 11, 2009. During that session, the participants reviewed 3 main areas that are summarized here: history of physician/surgeon workforce policy, current beliefs, recent policy activity, and issues related to forecasting/planning the future surgical workforce.