In February 1972 the U. S. Army Medical Field Service School will commence training a new category of health personnel, to be known as the physicians' assistant. This type of allied health personnel will be an assistant to the physician, trained to do many of the traditional tasks usually performed by a physician, but requiring less education. There has been some question about exactly what tasks these physicians' assistants should be trained to do, and how such a person would function. Few opinion surveys of physicians concerning physicians' assistants have been made. In 1969 and in 1967 a similar study was done in the Army to gain insight into the attitudes of Army physicians. (Author)