title: [Consistency of data on medical manpower: the French experience ].
abstract: Various sources provide statistics on medical doctors in France: (i) for deontologic control purpose, physicians have to register with the Medical Council: (ii) moreover, they have to declare their diploma to the local health administration; (iii) the reimbursements made by the Sickness Insurance Fund make it possible to obtain statistics on doctors in private practice. Until recently, the sources in (i) and (ii) provided data evidencing large gaps, although theoretically they covered all active medical doctors in France. From 1998 onwards, the statistical office of the Ministry of Health undertook a project aimed at estimating the accurate number of active physicians by region, specialty and place of work (hospital or ambulatory care). The project was based, inter alia, on the annual survey of employment conducted by the National Statistical Office. The results were reasonably consistent. The article describes the various steps of the endeavour and the difficulties encountered.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Niel
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005602:France; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010820:Physicians / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D011156:Population Density; D013038:Specialization
vernacular_title: L'harmonisation des donnees de demographie medicale en France.