Health Affairs inaugurated in its last issue a new feature that will provide readers on a continuing basis data on the most important trends of the burgeoning medical industry. Once a year, the trends of a significant quarter of the total health sphere will be reported, thus giving readers the opportunity to track this information over time. Our first effort examined trends in the cost and financing of medical care. This issue will focus on trends in medical, dental, and nursing school training, employment, and salary levels. Also in this issue, Lynn Etheredge and David Juba of The Urban Institute present data on Medicare payments for physician services and David Aquilina of the Council of Community Hospitals details the performance of Minnesota HMOs in terms of average length-of-stay.