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Article by : FortuneWell
Exclusive: Doctors hit their breaking point as 86% fear for the future of American medicine: ‘We are often stretched quite thin’
“That imbalance between what we went to school for and what we trained for and what we are practically, really doing? I think improvements there can be quite substantive"
Around 81% of doctors say they’re overworked in the 2024 Physician Compensation Report released today from Doximity, an online networking platform for medical professionals, and shared exclusively with Fortune. Researchers polled 33,000 full-time U.S. physicians in 2023, and drew on data from thousands of other recent surveys. Another 88% say the existing physician shortage is causing their practice to suffer, and 86% say they’re concerned about the American health care system’s ability to care for an aging population. Morale is so low that around 30% of doctors are considering early retirement—a potential disaster for a country in which 70% of people already feel like the health care system has failed them.
“We find ourselves in a position where we are often stretched quite thin,” Dr. Amit Phull, Doximity’s chief physician experience officer and an emergency medicine physician, tells Fortune. “I think as the [pandemic] dust settles, there’s a lot of reconsideration for folks who at the outset might have felt, ‘This is the place that I need to be, this is why I trained.’ They’re now reconsidering careers in medicine, in terms of the cost and the balance.”
Physicians have always had tough jobs, whether that means long hours, emotionally taxing conversations, or a dizzying amount of responsibility. But patients today are sicker than they were just a few decades ago, and often suffer from multiple comorbidities such as arthritis, diabetes, and asthma. “The specter of taking care of this aging, sicker population is just that much more daunting,” says Phull...Read More
Article by : Fierce Healthcare
The 20 highest paid specialties in 2023
as doctors see 6% boost in pay
The majority of physicians (62%) do not believe their pay matches the level of effort and expertise required in their role. Heavy workloads and high administrative burden appear to be so problematic that many physicians are either considering accepting lower compensation for more work-life balance or leaving clinical practice altogether.
After several years of modest or declining growth, the average pay for doctors jumped 5.9% in 2023, rebounding from a decline of 2.4% in 2022. Among specialties, hematology and family medicine claimed the top two spots, with double-digit percentage growth compared to 2022 (12.4% and 10.2%, respectively). However, inflationary pressures continue to impact physicians’ real income. According to the American Medical Association, when adjusted for inflation, Medicare physician payment has dropped 26% since 2001.
Doximity found that the 20 specialties with the highest average annual compensation in 2023 tend to be surgical and procedural specialties treating adult patients. Neurosurgery comes out on top, followed by thoracic surgery, orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery and oral and maxillofacial surgery. The specialists with the highest pay didn't necessarily see the biggest bumps in growth in 2023. Following hematology and family medicine, infectious disease physicians saw their pay increase by 9%, plastic surgeons by 8.5% and occupational medicine saw an average 8.5% pay bump. Oral and maxillofacial surgery, nephrology, pediatric emergency medicine, oncology and psychiatry also saw high single-digit pay increases.
The specialists with the lowest annual compensation tend to be pediatric and primary care doctors. Pediatric endocrinologists had the lowest annual compensation ($217,875) followed by pediatric nephrology ($227,450), pediatric rheumatology ($233,491), pediatric infectious disease ($236,235) and medical genetics ($244,517)...Read More
G-Med | Where Physicians Are
G-Med is the largest global physicians-only community, reaching over 1.5 million verified physicians from more than 160 countries and 100+ specialties.
Article by : Statista
Countries with the highest physicians density worldwide as of 2021 (per 10,000 population)*
Cuba was the country with the highest physician density, i.e. the number of physicians in relation to its population. There were 84 physicians per every 10,000 of Cuba's population, however, the most recent data was from 2018. Other countries....Read More
