THORACIC-SURGERY WORKFORCE REPORT - THE 4TH REPORT OF THE THORACIC-SURGERY WORKFORCE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN-ASSOCIATION-FOR-THORACIC-SURGERY AND THE SOCIETY-OF-THORACIC-SURGEONS

To determine demographics, practice patterns, and work volume of North American thoracic surgeons, we sent a detailed survey to all members of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons between January and May 1993 to determine data for 1992; 3049 of 3487 (87%) thoracic surgeons responded and 2677 (88%) were in active practice, Ninety-seven percent were male and 3% female, with a mean age of 52 years, Sixty-five percent considered fee-for-service as their primary compensation mode, Only 24% do isolated subspecialty work: 2% pediatric cardiac surgery, 10% general thoracic surgery, and 12% adult cardiac surgery, Seventy-six percent of respondents do both cardiac and thoracic operations, Workload data for adult cardiac, pediatric cardiac, general thoracic, peripheral vascular, and pacemaker operations were requested, Volume data were cross-correlated with age, 10 geographic regions including Canada, type of practice, and type of compensation and were cross-checked by hospital discharge data for 1992, These data were compared with data from similar surveys performed in 1976, 1980, and 1985, under the auspices of the same two societies; these latter surveys used diplomates of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery as their database, Workloads have increased over previous surveys, Most surgeons do a wide variety of thoracic operations, and exclusive designations are in the minority.