Health care professionals are taking on new roles with medical assistants having one of the most rapidly evolving roles in new models of care. New roles are emerging that focus on coordinating and managing patients’ care within the health care system and “boundary spanning” functions that address the patient’s health care needs across health and community‐based settings.

This brief synthesizes the emerging body of evidence on the workforce implications of new models of care. Three dominant trends are identified: 1) traditional health care functions are increasingly being delegated to new types of workers (“task shifting”); 2) new staff roles are emerging to provide enhanced care services; and 3) employers are facing significant challenges integrating new roles into the existing human resources infrastructure.