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.