Need for Internal Medicine Subspecialists in Thailand.

The demand-based forecast for the number of subspecialist needed was made possible with assumptions on conceptual framework for case selection, the rates of consultation and time-spent related to activities of patient care. The estimated numbers of subspecialists were anticipated far from optimum since the workload in the year 2013 was derived as a consequence of pre-existing suboptimal infrastructure of healthcare system. In addition, the deficit of subspecialists may increase in the near future when highly efficient, non- or mildly invasive, time-consuming procedures of acute illness increase. Sustainable matching demand and supply of human resource for health needed further validations of these assumptions.