title: Thoracic Surgery Workforce Report. The fourth report of the Thoracic Surgery Workforce Committee of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Cohn
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: F D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Loop
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Fosburg
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Láks
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013903:Thoracic Surgery / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States