title: Dissecting the workforce and workplace for clinical endocrinology, and the work of endocrinologists early in their careers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The United States lacks timely reliable mechanisms for assessing the professional work of subspecialty physicians.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to use early-career members of The Endocrine Society as a model to estimate subspecialty physician involvement in patient care, teaching, research, and administration among clinical, academic, federal, and pharmaceutical/biotech workplaces and to assess the workforce for research within individual workplaces.
  
  
  METHODS
  Physicians joining The Endocrine Society from 1991-2005 and residing in North America were invited to complete a Web-based survey. This report relies on 817 early-career endocrinologists or 29.6% of eligible respondents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Respondents from all types of workplaces engaged in patient care, teaching, research, and administration. The time committed to the four tasks, however, differed significantly among workplaces. Research (basic, translational, disease, patient, population, and prevention) was accomplished within all workplaces, but the scope and scale of investigative work was employer dependent. Recipients of National Institutes of Health K08/23 awards succeeded in receiving federal research project grants (P < 0.001). Respondents associated research with lowered incomes, a perception validated by an estimated drop in annual earnings of 2.8% per half-day spent on research (P < 0.001). Women in academic settings earned less than men (P < 0.01) and were less likely to occupy tenure-eligible positions (P < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Web-based surveys offer a simple tool for estimating the work of subspecialty physicians and provide a framework for improving biomedical investigation. Several interventions should be considered for endocrinology: recruit physicians from underrepresented demographic groups, increase K08/23 awards, incentivize investigative careers, and improve the national infrastructure for biomedical research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60612-4325, USA. clauded@uic.edu
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Desjardins
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bach
authors.forename: Anne R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Cappola
authors.forename: Ellen W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Seely
authors.forename: Ronald G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Ehrenberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002321:Career Choice; D002322:Career Mobility; D003625:Data Collection; D004704:Endocrinology / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012955:Societies, Medical; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data