Legislative and professional medical committee developments in graduate medical education needs and directions are reviewed in this background paper. The Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee (GMENAC) represents a critical nonregulatory step in the establishment of goals for the training and differentiation of physician manpower. It is responsive to the intents and judgments expressed by many public and private bodies in recent years and provides an opportunity for the identification and development of issues of concern to the public and the profession. GMENAC will be able to highlight issues in the development of national health insurance that relate to graduate education, and to present strategies to HEW for consideration in the planning of new health manpower legislation that will be in its early conceptual stages in 1978 and 1979. (Author/LBH)