These worthwhile efforts have notably included information on medical practitioners by speciality. In Finland, for example, health workforce planning is part of an economy-wide workforce planning exercise, rather than occupation-specific. The main objective of overall workforce planning is to provide advice on tertiary education student intake, to achieve a better balance between future workforce supply and demand. Meanwhile, Japan has conducted an analysis of physicians, nurses, long-term care workers, pharmacists and other health workers (Ono et al., These efforts should be continued, and broadened to take in other parts of the workforce, such as allied health professionals.