Does the number of residency positions influence the number of practicing physicians in a state? An evaluation of the national distribution of Neurological surgeons.
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Document Type
Research Abstract
Research Type
medicaleducation
Level of Research
no
Abstract
Does the number of residency positions influence the number of practicing physicians in a state? An evaluation of the national distribution of Neurological surgeons.
Introduction
Lack of physicians in underserved areas is a national problem impacting the health of the United States.1 Some solutions for the deficiency have been proposed 2,3, and trialed with varying degrees of success 4, however, increasing the number of training positions in underserved areas has been proposed as a viable option to increase access to underserved regions.2,4
The goal of this project was to correlate the number of residency positions and number of neurosurgeons per capita in each state to determine if states with higher training positions have a higher number board certified neurological surgery attendings.
Methods
We abstracted data from the American Association of Neurological Surgery 5 and National Resident Matching Program 6 for number of first year neurosurgical residency positions, residency location, number of board certified neurosurgeons and state of residency. Population estimates were obtained from the United States Census 7. Using QGIS and Microsoft Excel, the correlation was determined between the number of residency positions and board certified neurosurgery attendings per 100,000 population by state.
Results
We identified 111 neurosurgery training programs with 231 first year positions and a total of 3979 board certified neurosurgeons. There is a positive correlation of r =0.683403 p<0000.1 r2 =0.467 between number of residency positions per capita and number of board certified neurosurgeons per capita on a state level.
Conclusion
The strong positive correlation suggests that the number of first year training positions may positively influence the total number of board certified neurosurgeons on a state level.
Reference
5. Find a Board-certified Neurosurgeon. https://www.aans.org/. Accessed January 5, 2020.
Disciplines
Health Services Administration | Health Services Research | Medical Education | Medicine and Health Sciences | Other Medicine and Health Sciences | Other Public Health | Public Health Education and Promotion
Recommended Citation
Haider, Salman and Craig, Cheryl, "Does the number of residency positions influence the number of practicing physicians in a state? An evaluation of the national distribution of Neurological surgeons." (2020). Medical Student Research Symposium. 21.
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/som_srs/21