The supply of pediatric pulmonologists

Article Outline

• Copyright

For more than 10 years, the American Board of Pediatrics has tracked the training of pediatric fellows and the size of the pediatric workforce. In this issue of The Journal, Althouse and Stockman publish the results for pediatric pulmonology. There has been a steady increase in the number of fellows training in pediatric pulmonology since 1997, and 3.6% of takers of general pediatric boards select pediatric pulmonology as an area of interest.

Historically, pediatric pulmonologists mainly practiced in academic medical centers, but now only 52% plan to practice in that setting. Certified diplomats are distributed unevenly and 4 states do not have a practicing certified pediatric pulmonologist.

Other interesting trends are the increase in the total percentage of female fellows since 1997 and the increase in the number of American medical school graduates since 1997. A note of concern is that almost 14% of pediatric pulmonology trainees do not complete the three years of training.