医師年齢を考慮した地域診療所医師数の評価

Abstract

Objective: Foresight and data analysis are important factors that can help in developing the health care system to suit the local requirements. The present study was designed to develop methods for analyzing physician resources in various areas. Methods: Data on clinic administrators, including their names, ages, and clinical departments, were collected using the Medical Information Net of Nara Prefecture, whereas the National Confirmation System was used to collect information on medical doctors. The data were classified into 3 groups according to the physicians' ages: <65, 66-75, and ≥76 years old. The mean number of departments was calculated and the data was represented schematically according to each group and municipality. Results: Six hundred one doctors(77.6%) were identified from 774 clinics, excluding overlapping data. Among these, 491 doctors (81.7%) were correctly registered according to the registration year. Three hundred seventy-one doctors (72.5%) were registered in 1961 and later; these doctors were assumed to be <76 years old. Three hundred seventy-one doctors (58.4%) were registered in 1971 and later, while 247 were registered (31.6%) in 1981 and later. The number of medical practitioners per 100,000 people increased in a few municipalities, which was mainly attributable to a decrease in the population size. Conclusion: The method developed in the present study provides a useful approach for estimating medical practitioner resources using the prefectural Medical Information Net and National Confirmation System. However, the method has some limitations because of missing data in the registries and lack of information regarding physicians who are not administrators.